Tainted blood scandal: remembering the victims of the 'worst tragedy in NHS history'

For the families and victims of the tainted blood scandal, it has been a 30 year battle for justice.

Yesterday, an independent inquiry examining how thousands of men, women and children became infected with contaminated blood products, finally began its hearings.

Sir Brian Langstaff, a retired High Court Judge, pledged to act “without fear or favour” in holding those responsible to acccount and examining accusations of a cover up.

But first, it was time to remember the victims.

Bereaved relatives and sufferers of the contaminated blood scandal were moved to tears as they watched images of hundreds of people who died in the scandal, set to an Emeli Sande song - Read All About It - with its lyrics about “finally finding our voices”.

In a second film victims starkly described how the contamination with Hepatitis C and HIV had destroyed their lives.

Many told how they had been unable to work, their relationships had failed, they had been stopped from having children or forced into abortions and how they felt forced to hide their illness because of the stigma surrounding the diseases.

"For many hundreds of innocent people it has taken away their dreams, their hopes, their dignity... their sanity, their potential, and even their homes and marriages,” actress Isla Blair told the commemoration service, in a speech shared with Downton Abbey actor David Robb.

The inquiry - ordered by the Prime Minister last year - will be the largest of its kind, with more than 1,270 infected victims and their family members taking part and more than 100,000 documents already submitted.

Until now estimates have suggsted that around 7,500 patients had been infected by HIV and hepatitis, causing around 3,000 deaths.

But in his opening statement, Sir Brian revealed that the scale of the scandal may be far greater - saying that more than 25,000 people may in fact have been infected, many with no idea their lives are threatened.

He also suggested criminal trials could follow the independent inquiry, which opened yesterday, as he promised to investigate allegations of a cover-up and hold those responsible to account.

Previous inquiries have lacked powers to force witnesses to testify, meaning questions about whether the scandal was covered up have never been answered.

The independent Infected Blood Inquiry will investigate how thousands of men, women and children died after being infected with HIV and contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 80s.

They include more than 5,000 people with the clotting disorder haemophilia, given clotting agents which used human blood plasma from the US, from paid donors including drug addicts, sex workers and prisoners.

Victims yesterday said they have been living “half lives” under the shadow of their illnesses.

They called for the Inquiry to complete its investigations in as short as time as possible so that victims were still alive to hear its conclusions.

Nearly 100 victims are thought to have died since the Inquiry was announced in July last year.

Alan Burgess, 60, who is infected with both HIV and Hepatitis C, said: “It can’t come quickly enough. We’ve been waiting for so long and so many people have already died while we were waiting - I lost a friend just a couple of weeks ago.

“For me, I don’t know how long I’ve got. I take a cocktail of drugs every day to stay alive. I just hope I am still here to see justice done.”

One man said he was given Factor VIII blood products as an eight-year-old child for a swollen knee, and was misdiagnosed with haemophilia.

It was not until he was 43 years old that he found out he had been infected with Hepatitis C.

"When they told me what they had done to me, I stood at a motorway bridge to jump off it - basically, that has been my life ever since," he added.

"I lost everything, I lost my whole life the day I found out - everything ended."

Others told how they received a diagnosis of HIV by post.

Michelle Tolley, now 53, was infected following a blood transfusion after the birth of her child in 1987 and another in 1991 - she eventually found out in 2015 that she had Hepatitis C.

Yesterday she said: “This is the worst tragedy in the history of the NHS and it must never ever happen again, absolutely never."

Sir Brian also said he appreciated the Inquiry needed to find answers quickly, adding: “The longer the Inquiry takes, the more will not have lived to see its conclusions.”

He told victims the process would be “as fast as reasonable thoroughness will permit” but admitted it would be a “mammoth task”.

The inquiry will consider "whether there have been attempts to conceal details of what happened" through the destruction of documents or withholding of information.

It will also consider if those attempts were deliberate and if "there has been a lack of openness or candour" in the response of the Government, NHS bodies and other officials to those affected.

Just before the hearings began, victims and their families were invited to lay messages in front of the stage.

As a choir sang “The Sound of Silence” by Paul Simon, infected and affected victims slowly lined up to each place an individual plastic vial – echoing those used to contain blood – in an illuminated display stand at the front of the stage.  Each contained a private, personal message or tribute.

These will stay in the venue’s chapel during this week’s hearings, which will hear opening statements from the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care.

The full inquiry will start next April and is expected to last a minimum of 15 months.