Victims of contaminated blood scandal say they’re ’emotional and nervous’

Victims of the infected blood scandal today described feeling ’emotional and nervous’ as the final report into the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS is due to be published.

The Infected Blood Inquiry will conclude this afternoon after decades of ‘tireless’ work by campaigners, with Rishi Sunak expected to issue an apology for failings that have claimed more than 3,000 lives and continue to wreck countless others.

Tens of thousands of people in the UK were infected with deadly viruses after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.

These include people who needed blood transfusions for accidents, in surgery or during childbirth, and patients with certain blood disorders who were treated with donated blood plasma products or blood transfusions.

They include Lee Turton, who died aged just 10 from Hep C and HIV after being given infected blood to treat his haemophilia aged two. His parents, Colin and Denise, said they had been ‘lied to for 40 years’ and ‘just want justice’. 

Colin and Jan Smith, lost their son Colin Jnr in 1990 aged seven after he contracted HIV, today claimed he was used in ‘secret trials’ because he was ‘cheaper than chimpanzees’ to test on and called for those responsible to be prosecuted.

Others included Mike Dorricott, infected in 1982 before dying in 2015 aged 47 after years of suffering, and Nicky Calder, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and died in 1999 aged 25. 

Nicky’s mother, Rosemary, said his death ‘destroyed’ her life and led to the breakdown of her marriage. 

It has been estimated that one person dies as a result of infected blood every four days.

The inquiry was first announced by former prime minister Theresa May in 2017, with the first official hearing held on April 20 2019.

It is one of the largest UK public inquiries.

Some 374 people have given oral evidence, and the inquiry has received more than 5,000 witness statements and reviewed more than 100,000 documents.

The chairman of the inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, has previously said that ‘wrongs were done at individual, collective and systemic levels’.

Campaigners have hailed the publication of the report as the ‘end of a 40-year fight’.

Suresh Vaghela, of Leicester, said he was feeling ‘nervous’ ahead of the final report.

The 61-year-old started receiving contaminated Factor VIII blood product to treat his haemophilia when he was around 13 years old, and was told when he started university in 1983 that he had HIV and had two months to live.

In the early 1990s, he discovered he had also been infected with hepatitis C.

‘We feel emotional at the moment in the sense that it’s like a 40-year-old fight, and it’s coming to an end and we’ve come to the end of our energy levels,’ he said. 

Mr Vaghela said he wanted a ‘meaningful apology’, decent compensation and for pharmaceutical companies ‘to pay for what they’ve done’.

Rosamund Cooper, a former IT consultant, said she was ‘really optimistic’ for the inquiry’s final report, but that there is ‘no certainty’ as to how the Government will react.

The 50-year-old, from Dudley, was diagnosed with Von Willebrand disease, a bleeding disorder, when she was eight months old.

When she was 19, she found out she had been infected with hepatitis C as a result of her treatment.

‘I do genuinely think that the report will vindicate all of the struggles that we’ve been through,’ Ms Cooper said.

Ade Goodyear suffered from severe haemophilia as a child and, in 1990 aged nine, was given the new treatment Factor VIII at the Lord Mayor Treloar College in Hampshire – which had a specialist blood unit. 

Six years’ later he was told by a doctor the blood had been infected and he had only three years to live. 

Mr Goodyear, who survived, told Sky News this month: ‘The doctor lifted up his hand and said – you have – you haven’t – you have – got HIV. There were tears in all their eyes, the doctors and staff.

‘My friend to my right said ”how long have we got?” and he said ”we’ll do our best but we think two to three years at the absolute most”.

Lauren Palmer lost her parents Stephen and Barbara within eight days of each other in 1993 after her father was given infected blood products for his severe haemophilia and passed HIV and hepatitis to her mother. 

She previously described how their deaths ‘shattered’ their family and the lack of financial support held her back. When asked if the children of infected blood victims had been neglected, she said ‘yes’. 

Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: ‘We would not be where we are today without the community’s decades of tireless campaigning for answers.

‘We hope that today’s report marks the beginning of the end of this long campaign for justice for everyone who has been impacted by infected blood and blood products.’

Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: ‘Radical change must result from this inquiry if we are to learn the lessons of the past and protect future generations from harm.’

Richard Angell, chief executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: ‘The publication of the final Infected Blood Inquiry report is a seismic moment for those infected and affected by this scandal who have been vindicated but not yet compensated.

‘For victims of the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, who have been fighting for justice for almost five decades, the trauma never stops.’

Campaigners have been told that the compensation package from the Government will be more than £10billion.

Some members of the infected blood community expect that ministers will announce so-called ‘tariffs’ for compensation in the near future.

This could include how much people in certain groups are paid as compensation.

MP Dame Diana Johnson, who has been campaigning on behalf of victims for almost two decades, told BBC Breakfast on Monday morning that in other countries such as France, ministers have been brought before the courts for prosecution.

‘My concern is this has taken so very long to get to this point, some of the key players in this may well now have sadly died, so we’ll have to wait and see,’ she said.

‘But I’m hoping the police will be looking at what Sir Brian says and whether there is evidence that people will be prosecuted, if that is possible, after all this time.

‘There has to be accountability for the actions that were taken, even if it was 30, 40, 50 years ago.’

Earlier, she told PA: ‘I am really hopefully that Sir Brian, having heard six years of evidence, will give some answers to the questions that the people infected and their families have had about how this was allowed to happen, who knew what, and whether accountability can be apportioned.

‘Also I think it is acknowledgement that wrongs were done. In Sir Brian’s second interim report last year, he said: ‘Wrongs were done on an individual, collective and systemic level,’ and they were compounded by the behaviour of governments over decades, refusing to acknowledge that anything had been done that was wrong. That now has to be acknowledged and there has to be redress for that.’

Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, which represents 1,500 victims, said the importance of the final report to victims of the scandal ‘cannot be overestimated’.

‘They have spent years bravely telling their stories, campaigning and spurring collective action in order to get to this point. For some it has been 40 years since their lives were forever blighted or loved ones were lost in cruel circumstances,’ he said.

‘Several thousands, sadly, have not lived to see this day.’

Mr Collins described the publication of the report as the ‘day of truth’, adding: ‘They will finally achieve recognition of all they have experienced and will learn, as a matter of public record, how and why the infected blood scandal occurred.’

Speaking ahead of the final report, 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 we 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 three 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.’