Fareham victim of infected blood scandal feels like 'dead woman walking' as public inquiry rolls on

A VICTIM of the contaminated blood scandal from Fareham has called on the government to do more to support those affected as its inquiry looks to shift focus next year.
Jackie Britton, aged 59, who lives in Fareham, had a blood transfusion in 1983 following the birth of her first child - and discovered almost 30 years later that she had been given infected blood.Jackie Britton, aged 59, who lives in Fareham, had a blood transfusion in 1983 following the birth of her first child - and discovered almost 30 years later that she had been given infected blood.
Jackie Britton, aged 59, who lives in Fareham, had a blood transfusion in 1983 following the birth of her first child - and discovered almost 30 years later that she had been given infected blood.

The Infected Blood Inquiry is examining how thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since September 2020, the focus of the investigation has been the treatment and care of patients with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.

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But the inquiry has announced it will focus on blood and transfusion services across the UK, which saw housands of people given contaminated blood through transfusions needed for routine treatment or during surgery.

Among them was Fareham resident Jackie Britton, 59, who had a blood transfusion in 1983 following the birth of her first child – but did not discover she had been given infected blood until 2011.

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After being diagnosed with hepatitis C virus (HCV), Jackie has undergone several rounds of treatment to clear the virus, but she has been left with cirrhosis and pernicious anaemia.

Her regular check-ups for these conditions have become ‘a living nightmare’, according to Jackie.

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She said: ‘My six-month check-ups have become a living nightmare. In 2016 a scan revealed lesions on my liver for the first time and so a CT scan was needed to rule out cancer.

‘The weeks waiting for scan and results took an indescribable mental toll on not only myself but my family. I was lucky on that occasion but the dread of what they could find never leaves you, especially as I was at the death bed of my friend and fellow campaigner Sally Vickers.’

Jackie is an avid campaigner for the Infected Blood Public Inquiry and created support groups for other victims, with more than 7,000 contacting the inquiry to give their testimony. The 59-year-old added: ‘In February of this year again new lesions were picked up, again I had the wait for a CT scan, with the black thoughts, ‘you were lucky last time, will your luck hold?’.

‘I dodged the bullet a second time, but it’s already time for my next ultrasound at the end of this month – we really are ‘dead men walking’.

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The inquiry will resume hearings on blood services from the week of January 17, 2022.

Chair of the inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff, said that next year was likely to bring an end to hearings.

He said: ‘2022 promises to be a year when we keep up the considerable pace at which we have been going. If it isn't the year when our hearings end, as many of us – I think most of us – hope it will be, it will not be for want of trying.

‘But if we don't make it, it will leave us very close to that goal.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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