'My dad didn't hug myself or kiss my mum,' says son of Borders infected blood victim

ITV Border reporter Isla Todd spoke to the Strachan family about the impact the infected blood scandal has had on their lives

The father of a man who died of HIV due to the infected blood scandal would not hug or kiss his son or wife before he passed away for fear of spreading the virus.

John Strachan died in 1987, just two weeks before his son's ninth birthday. He had contracted HIV in the early 1980s from an infected blood transfusion.

His son Bob Strachan told ITV Border: "My dad didn't hug myself or even kiss my mum because he didn't know how this was passed on.

"My mum had told me that he died of kidney failure. And that was what I believed until my teens."

Bob said his mother then sat him down and told him the real story.

The family were so affected by the stigma of HIV, at a time when little was known about the infection, that they moved from Peterhead to New Zealand, then Canada, before returning to Scotland.

"There was a lot of ignorance around it (HIV), so it's just really hard to think about, something that was life changing and life ending, not just for that person, but for everyone around them," Bob said.

"It's the condition of life leading up to that. It's dealing with our mental health after this and throughout all of our lives."

What is the infected blood inquiry?

30,000 people were infected with contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s. A public inquiry into the scandal will report its findings on Monday 20 May.

The people impacted included those 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.

The inquiry concluded today (Monday 20 May 2024), finding that the thousands of lives impacted was "no accident".

The long-awaited report released on Monday revealed the risks were "well-known" decades before the infected blood products were used on patients in the UK.

Report author Sir Brian Langstaff concluded "the chief responsibility for the failings lied with successive governments", and that they "showed little interest in finding the truth".

Bob is calling for a full recognition of the scandal and compensation.

He continued: "First and foremost, there has to be an admission of guilt and apology made.

"You know, obviously they can't make restitution for the lives that have been lost or things like that. But there has to be accountability, first and foremost is the bare minimum.

"I would certainly like to see recompense of loss of earnings at the minimum for those people that did that. But also, then we have to take into consideration inheritance that could have been left."

Bob's daughter, Bobbi Strachan, never had the chance to meet her grandfather, but has still been impacted by this part of their family history.

She told ITV Border: "I would get really emotional and I would talk about certain things because grandad sounded like such an amazing person, and I would have loved to have got to know him.

"I'm 22 years old and this has been going on double my life - 40 years - and it caused a lot of issues.

"And so I'm really hoping that this brings closure to my grandma and my dad and so many other families. It's really important."

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