Infected Blood Scandal: Man would rather have 'a healthy life' than money, as compensation agreed

A man from Workington who was infected with contaminated blood while receiving treatment for leukaemia said "most people would much rather have a healthy life than the money" as the government announce compensation to victims.

Stuart Hall contracted Hepatitis C when being treated for cancer as a teenager.

Speaking to ITV Border, he reacted to the announcement that all "infected or affected" by the contaminated blood scandal will receive compensation before the end of the year.

Further interim payments of £210,000 for the most urgent cases will be made within 90 days, Paymaster General John Glen has said, as he recognised "time is of the essence" with members of the infected blood community dying each week.

Mr Hall said the payments may come too late for some: "They are extremely important for a lot of people who were seriously ill. And as we know, that's up to two people dying every week. And many, many people are going to die before the end of the year, and they may die without receiving any compensation."

Following his life in treatment for liver cancer and requiring a transplant, Mr Hall continued, "I don't think there actually is any amount of money that can compensate for that. I think most people would much rather have a healthy life than the money."

Mr Hall's wife is also entitled to compensation.

"Julie has been going through this with me since 1995 and she's been to all the appointments with me. She's lived with it knowing how serious it could be. She's been through it as much as I have to a degree."

Last year, it was recommended that the compensation scheme should be set up to coincide with the completion of the public inquiry to ensure that victims would be paid as quickly as possible, which never happened.

Mr Hall believes the government "were trying to avoid a huge bill".

"They insisted on waiting for the final report, and I don't know why they were insistent waiting for the final report. And that didn't wait for the inquiry into Post Office Scandal to complete and never mind a final report from that before announcing compensation for the post office.

"I actually wrote a letter to [Paymaster General] John Glenn asking that question. I haven't received a reply yet from John Glenn."

It was announced on Tuesday 21 May, that anyone already registered with support schemes will automatically be considered eligible for compensation in the government-run scheme.

All those affected by the scandal - not only those who were infected with contaminated blood - will receive payouts, he confirmed, listing partners, parents, siblings, children, family and friends.

The government confirmed non-taxable compensation for victims who have died without seeing justice will go to their estate.

Asked how the compensation will benefit his family, Mr Hall said: "It just gives you that sense of security and redress because of everything that you've gone through, the life that you've had of constant worry.

It just rights some of those wrongs and it needs to happen, especially for people who suffered financial hardship, people who were infected with HIV or family members who were infected with HIV, with the stigma attached to HIV.

"There's a lot of people who were not allowed to work. They had to take career breaks. They had to change the career that they might have had to a career that gave them more time off to look after people. And I think the compensation is to cover that as well."

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