Infected blood victims to attend the Inquiry report

Victims in the East of England and their families will be attending the Infected Blood Inquiry's official report today.

The inquiry looked into tens of thousands of people being infected with HIV and hepatitis C through infected blood and blood products in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, in what has been dubbed the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

The Inquiry, which was ordered almost seven years ago by then Prime Minister Theresa May, has heard evidence from those people directly affected as well as medical experts and people who were involved at the time.

It has already made its final recommendations on compensation for victims and their loved ones.

Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Inquiry said:

"The Inquiry’s final recommendations on compensation were published in April 2023. My principal recommendation remains that a compensation scheme should be set up with urgency. No-one should be in any doubt about the serious nature of the failings over more than six decades that have led to catastrophic loss of life and compounded suffering.”

Throughout the past few weeks, victims in the East of England have been sharing their stories and hopes from the report.

Steve Bartram, from Norfolk, was infected with Hepatitis C through treatment for haemophilia in 1984, but was only told about it eleven years later.

He said: "The stigma was absolutely atrocious."

"We had to move from Essex to Norfolk and when the news got out that I had got Haemophilia as well, somebody wrote on the bus-stop next to my dad's store 'AIDS family".

"I've been left with Cirrhosis of the liver. My Grandad and my mum's cousins were diagnosed with Hep C and HIV and they've all since passed."

"I've been campaigning since I was diagnosed in 1995. I just want it over, it's taken over and destroyed my life. I want to wake up one day and be free of it."

Matthew Harris, from Northamptonshire, was born with severe Haemophilia A in the 1970s and was never properly told about what he had contracted through a procedure.

He said: "It slowly dawned on me that I had Hepatitis through infected blood. Nobody had ever told me face to face."

"I had to have medication, though the first course of treatment didn't work. It made me extremely ill to the point where my wife had to give up work because I was so poorly."

Laura Burgess, from Suffolk, was just 11-years-old when she learnt she was a carrier of HIV. Her father Alan Burgess had been infected whilst being treated for Haemophilia in 1985.

She said: "At the time it was a death sentence, and there was stigma."

"You’re always fighting, its continuous and you’re just tired and fed up."

She explained how if the blood scandal had never happened, they would be living "completely different lives".

Due to the fear of her dad's health declining again, she "never wanted to leave home" or go to university, because they never knew "when things would go wrong."

Nicola Jones, from Hertfordshire, was diagnosed as young child with mild haemophilia, and was only nine years old when she was given medical treatment, which she later found out had contaminated her blood with Hepatitis C.

She said: "It's about accountability, many of us were led to believe that we were going mad, that it was all in our head, and that there was nothing wrong with us."

"There's still no answers, and it's something that many campaigners have campaigned years and years for."

"It is also about compensation, I don't like using the words lessons learned but. In order for lessons to be learned, sometimes that can only be through a financial impact and then if that's the case, well then the government need to pay."

Chris Smith's father, from Bedfordshire, was a severe haemophiliac and contracted infections from contaminated blood products in the late 1970s, and died a decade later.

He said: "It was horrible growing up, and I have to admit, at times I didn't actually want to be on the planet anymore, because I'd spent all of my time with Dad."

"I would go to bed at night and after all the family had gone, I would sit and listen to my mum crying downstairs, it just was devastating. We lost everything."

"All it takes is for one person to be infected, and at that point in time, what they were doing was collecting the blood and putting it all in a barrel together, so one person infected infected everything,"

"The government and all the scientists knew of these risks way before contaminated blood came around, so for me it's always felt like Dad was murdered."

Stuart Cantrill, from Cambridgeshire, lost his dad Barrie after he became one of more than 30,000 people in the UK infected with HIV and Hepatitis C who were given contaminated blood products.

He said: "I wouldn't not want to be married or have my daughter, but the path my life has taken has been very different to what it would have been had my dad not been infected with HIV."

"He died when he was 48, but he walked like he was 70."

"It's not just what you read in the papers these days, you see more things on social media and you learn this didn't just happen to you, but as a 15-year-old boy, your world has just caved in around you and you don't stop to think 'this is a bigger problem'."

Victoria Burley, from Buckinghamshire, was given several blood transfusions during a routine surgery in the 1990s, and found out years later she was living with Hepatitis C.

She said: "It must have been 2005 or something like that, that's when I found out, and that was through just me having extremely bad dry skin."

"And I couldn't sleep at night, so I just went in and they took a blood test, and when I went back they said 'you've got hepatitis C'."

"I would like the date cut-off changed, and I would like compensation for the children that have had to go through all this because their lives have been worse as well."

"I know my kids have suffered."

What does the Government say?

A Government spokesperson said:

"This was an appalling tragedy that never should have happened.

"We are clear that justice needs to be done and swiftly, which is why have acted in amending the Victims and Prisoners Bill.

“This includes establishing a new body to deliver an Infected Blood Compensation Scheme, confirming the Government will make the required regulations for it within 3 months of Royal Assent, and that it will have all the funding needed to deliver compensation once they have identified the victims and assessed claims.

“In addition, we have included a statutory duty to provide additional interim payments to the estates of deceased infected people.

“We will continue to listen carefully to the community as we address this dreadful scandal."

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