I would like to start today by thanking the Members in whose name this motion appears on today’s agenda. This is a very important subject, where we have the opportunity to call for redress for those lives touched by the contaminated blood tragedy. For my contribution today, I would like to focus on the stories of two of my constituents who were affected in this way. The first story is from a constituent who, understandably, wishes to remain nameless. He says:

‘I was 17 years old and ready to start my life when I was told by my Haemophilia Doctor that I had HIV, I was told not to tell anyone, not even my mother. They told me I would live about 18 months. I had seen AIDS victims on the TV and so I thought I would die in the same way. This was a death sentence, I signed myself out of hospital and started taking sleeping tablets, as when I was asleep I wasn’t thinking about the reality of what was happening. During the next few years I took more and more sleeping pills, morphine and pethidine, in fact anything to numb the effect and stop the mental torture. I would take 5 or 6 at a time, up to 90 a week. I had a nervous breakdown and was admitted to Whitchurch Psychiatric hospital and tried to kick the habit. For years I spent spells in and out of hospital where I witnessed other Haemophiliacs I had known dying from AIDS. One such victim Mathew was a young man who was a couple of years younger than me and looked up to me, he was going to die imminently and I was asked to stay in hospital a few days longer by the Haemophilia doctors until he died. I had become an addict to sleeping tablets and pain killers and my doctor stopped them all one day, I was climbing the walls as I was given no help, I broke into the local pharmacy to try and get tablets to numb the pain. I attempted suicide many times, my mother witnessed all of this.

‘In 1994 I was told that I was also infected with Hepatitis C, I underwent many courses of treatment with horrendous side effects and eventually was clear of the virus 3 years ago. I was told that I had cirrhosis due to Hepatitis C but I have been refused stage 2 ongoing payments from the Skipton Fund. All my life I haven’t been able to get life assurance or mortgage protection due to HIV and Hepatitis C. I live day to day, I met my wife over 20 years ago, we would like to have some recognition of what has happened to me and how my life has been ruined. We would like financial support to offer us some degree of security. Instead we have to make applications for means tested support which is usually turned down.’

The second story is from my constituent Jeff Meaden, who I’ve been in correspondence with for some months. Jeff writes movingly about his much-loved wife Pat. Patricia Meaden died of liver cancer and liver failure in January 2014. Pat had contracted hepatitis C through treatment she had received for a blood clotting disorder. She was ill for most of 2013 but wasn’t referred for a liver transplant and developed liver cancer. Her widower Jeff says:

‘We lived in the same street as children and played together as children. We first went out together when we were 14, her death was so unnecessary, I am broken hearted. My wife would have been alive it if hadn’t been for Hepatitis C, it has ruined our lives and nobody is taking any responsibility for it.’

The stories of my unnamed constituent and Pat Meaden highlight some of the ways in which lives have been changed as a result of the contaminated blood scandal: the psychological impact; addiction to medication; suicide attempts; refusal of life assurance or mortgage protection; financial insecurity; and death. But their stories also highlight the way the contaminated blood scandal has affected those around them and I am glad that this aspect has also been touched upon in the motion today. I have no hesitation in supporting this motion today and its call for justice. Thank you.