Blood scandal victims to get payouts after decades-long fight

Campaign 'not over yet' as compensation costs expected to exceed £10bn

Victims of the infected blood scandal have had to wait "far too long" for compensation, a Cabinet minister acknowledged ahead of today’s long-awaited public inquiry report.

Thousands of lives “continue to be blighted” by the disaster, a charity said, as victims and their loved ones spoke out about the devastation it has caused.

One victim, Martin Reid from Aberdeenshire, described how he suffers “survivor’s guilt”, having contracted hepatitis C as a child during treatment for haemophilia.

Infected blood campaigners in Parliament Square in London ahead of the publication of the final report into the scandal. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

The worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS saw tens of thousands of people infected with contaminated blood or blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.

An estimated 3,000 people have died as a result, while those who survived have lived with life-long health implications, and compensation costs are expected to reach at least £10 billion.

The inquiry, the largest ever carried out in the UK, was launched in 2017 by then prime minister Theresa May.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC: "I think it has taken far too long to get to this. A problem that has gone on for decades."

Martin Reid has lived with life-long health impacts after being infected with hepatitis C as a child. Photo: Martin Reid/PA Wire

On LBC Radio he said the publication of the Infected Blood Inquiry report would be a "very significant moment", adding: "The fact it's taken decades and decades to get to this point of course is absolutely wrong."

Victims and relatives vowed their fight is "not over yet" as they paid tribute to the people who have died.

Hundreds of those affected gathered at Westminster for an event organised by the Hepatitis C Trust to mark the end of the inquiry.

Some of those in attendance have been campaigning for decades. Attendees held a one-minute silence to remember people who have died.

Amanda Patton with her brother Simon Cummings who was infected with HIV through his treatment for haemophilia and died in 1996, aged 38. Photo: Amanda Patton/PA Wire

Rachel Halford, chief executive of The Hepatitis C Trust, said: "It has been a really long road to get here.

"We would not be here without the tireless campaign efforts of all of the people in the community - you signed petitions, spoke to the media, shared your experiences with the inquiry, lobbied your MPs and fought tooth and nail to be heard."

She added in a statement: "But the fight is not over yet. Action from Government to right these historic wrongs is needed as urgently as ever: more than 650 who received infected blood or blood products have died since the Infected Blood Inquiry began.

"The Government must implement all the recommendations of the inquiry and announce a clear timeline for when compensation payments will be made as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, MP Dame Diana Johnson, who had lobbied on the issue for two decades, spoke of her emotion as she addressed the crowd.

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She said: "The journey has been far too long and far too slow and we know that many are not here when they should be."

The Haemophilia Society said the publication of the report “marks a seismic moment in the long fight for truth and justice for people with haemophilia".

Up to 6,000 people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders were infected with hepatitis and 1,250 of these were co-infected with both hepatitis and HIV.

Of the group who were infected with both hepatitis C and HIV, only around 250 are still alive today.

Mr Reid, from Insch, Aberdeenshire, described the lifelong impact after being infected with hepatitis C.

His hepatitis was cleared in 2011, but he has been left with lasting effects from the virus including anxiety and depression.

"My parents were both distraught about it - they felt a lot of guilt about it, I guess as any parent would," he said.

The 44-year-old added: "There is something ironically morose about the fact that I tell people that I'm 'one of the lucky ones'.

"They say: 'But you've got a disease that could have killed you.'

"I say: 'I consider myself one of the lucky ones that wasn't infected with HIV, like so many other people were, and I have lived to the age where I have been able to have a family, I am still here. so I do feel like one of the lucky ones.

"But I do feel a sense of survivor's guilt - especially as the inquiry has been hearing so many harrowing and heart-breaking stories about people's children being infected and dying at a very early age, or people being infected, never being told and subsequently going on to infect other members of their family."

The father-of-two continued: "Through every strand of life, it's there with you, it lives with you.

"Even when I cleared hepatitis C, there are so many things that are still with me, and will be with me until the day I die that are directly linked or have been caused by what has happened.

"In terms of my long term health, I feel very fatigued a lot, I suffer from insomnia, a lot of the health issues are mental health-related - I suffer from extreme anxiety."

He added: "If this disaster had happened in a single day - if thousands of people died from a disaster in a day, it would be all over the national press, people would be talking about it, there would be a memorial, it would be in the history books as a big disaster, but because this happened over such a long period of time - decades, for some people - it has, in a sense, diluted what this disaster actually involved."

His grandfather, who also had haemophilia, was also infected with the hepatitis C.

Mr Reid's grandfather died from cancer and hepatitis C complications when he was 71.

Meanwhile, the sister of a popular local radio DJ who died after receiving a contaminated blood product has described how she still misses her brother almost 30 years after his death.

Amanda Patton's brother Simon Cummings was infected with HIV through his treatment for haemophilia and died in 1996, aged 38.

"There's no doubt that the haemophilia did have a big impact on him... but it never stopped him," Ms Patton told the PA news agency.

Mr Cummings was one of the original presenters at an independent radio station in Surrey and Hampshire called County Sound.

"He became a very well known local personality and was incredibly popular," Ms Patton said.

"Simon was just an absolute natural on the radio and everybody adored him. He had a fantastic sense of humour. He was wonderful."

During his time as a radio presenter Mr Cummings decided to create a charity single - Everybody's Got A Crisis In Their Life - and got some famous names to contribute.

"It features Simon on lead vocals with Cliff Richard and Justin Hayward and Rick Wakeman, and all sorts of other people," said Ms Patton.

"Simon knew Cliff reasonably well, well enough that they occasionally socialised together. I met Cliff at Simon's house a couple of weeks before Simon died. I just happened to be there when Cliff came to see him."

Mr Cummings died in December 1996.

Ms Patton, a garden designer from Surrey, said: "He phoned me in September of that year and he said: 'I've got good news and bad news, the bad news is that they've given me between two and six months (to live), but the good news is I don't have to go to the dentist again.' It was just typical of him, absolutely typical."

She added: "People say that time heals, but it doesn't - what happened to him was so awful, he would have been 65... all those years he was denied, it's all the 'might have beens' as well as everything else."