Don't forget us - infected blood victims call for justice

Video report by correspondent Mel Barham

In a week when ministers have made unprecedented law changes and promised swift payouts of compensation to postmasters, another group of victims going through a public inquiry say they feel forgotten.

They have been caught up in another scandal, that of infected blood.

Thousands of people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C when they were given transfusions using blood found to be contaminated in the 1970s and 1980s. More than three thousand people have since died.

Peter Mossman was being treated for the blood condition haemophilia, when he was infected while in his 40s.

He died in 2021, aged 78, after spending decades demanding justice for victims affected by the infected blood scandal.

His son Gareth from Altrincham says, "They can't keep putting the infected blood scandal to the back of the queue his has been going on for a long time and it's time it's dealt with."

"We can't take away the injustice the postmasters suffered and I don't want to do that but he always said they want us to die they're delaying on purpose".

In April 2023 an interim report by the infected blood inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff said a compensation scheme must be set up as soon as possible.

But giving evidence to the inquiry Rishi Sunak refused to confirm a timetable for compensation payouts.

The Infected Blood Inquiry was established in 2017 to examine how thousands of patients in the UK developed HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products. About 2,900 people have since died.

Many had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and were given injections of the US product Factor VIII.

Sir Brian has said an interim compensation scheme should be widened so more people - including orphaned children and parents who lost children - can be compensated.

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