Health security

'I want justice': contaminated blood victims speak out

The long-awaited inquiry into the treatment of haemophiliacs who were given contaminated blood products is to begin on Tuesday. Below, two victims of the scandal describe what happened to them.

Maria Fletcher

Fletcher has learned to live with the discomfort and medical intervention caused by beta thalassemia, the blood disorder with which she was born. She requires transfusions every three weeks to top up the iron-containing protein in the red blood cells that carry oxygen around her body.

She was diagnosed with the condition aged one and endured regular hospital visits during her school years. After leaving education, she obtained a traineeship with a cosmetics company.

At 21, however, she started to feel extremely fatigued. After a series of tests she was informed she had contracted hepatitis C from the blood she had received.

“It wasn’t screened properly,” she says. “It was from donors living in England. I haven’t lived like a normal person and a lot of that has been due to hepatitis C. I kept working for a bit, but there were a lot of side-effects mentally and physically.

“My white cell count would drop and I had [temperature fluctuations] and shivers. I had a really good job and had to give it up. You couldn’t continue a normal life at home and work.”