Wigan councillor whose dad died after receiving contaminated blood backs compensation calls as scandal is uncovered

Coun Paula Wakefield was just 13 years old when her dad Russell Carbery died in 1993, aged 39.

He had haemophilia and contracted HIV and hepatitis B and C from an infected blood product he was given.

Coun Wakefield was involved in campaigns calling for a full public inquiry into the scandal, which began on April 20, 2019.

She was in London on Monday with other campaigners and people affected as the inquiry’s final report was published.

She said: “It’s a fantastic report. It’s really well written. It gets to the bottom of the questions that we have been asking all along. A lot of it is what we have known already, but now it’s out there in the public domain for everyone to see exactly what happened.

"For so long we were saying what we knew had happened, but the lines were coming out from health departments, from the Government, that people like my dad had the best treatment on offer and nothing more could be done and there was no evidence of HIV being contracted. It’s now come out that it was a lie and more could have been done.

"Now, after all these years we have been fighting against what’s been coming out from the Government and our voices are being heard and the truth is being told. Now history can be re-written and the correct story can be told about what happened to my dad and the thousands of others affected by this scandal.”

Ministers have earmarked around £10 billion for a compensation package for those affected, which is expected to be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Coun Wakefield said: “They have an opportunity to give a proper apology to the community and say why they are apologising and implement a compensation scheme.

"People need justice and people have missed out. They have lost jobs, lost homes, there is no life insurance. They need properly compensating so they can move on with their lives.”

Coun Wakefield had detailed the impact of her father’s illness and subsequent death on her and her family in a statement given to the inquiry.

She said her family received hate mail after her dad was diagnosed with HIV, he had to take his own cutlery to family meals and other parents told her primary school headteacher they did not want their children to attend if she and her brother were there.

The diagnosis meant Mr Carbery lost his life insurance and the mortgage on their home, while he also lost his job.

Coun Wakefield told the inquiry she was not able to grieve properly and was told to say he died from cancer, while her mother has never got over Mr Carbery’s death.

She decided not to have children, as she is a carrier of haemophilia, and only later gave birth to a daughter following genetic tests.

In her statement, Coun Wakefield, who represents Astley and Mosley Common on Wigan Council, said: “To think that the impact will stop at my generation is simply not right. The impact of this tragedy will continue for generations. My daughter is growing up without a grandad, my mum is not the person she would have been if my dad had not died and we will have to relive the entire story if my daughter is a haemophilia carrier.”

The inquiry concluded the infected blood scandal “could largely have been avoided” and there was a “pervasive” cover-up to hide the truth.

Deliberate attempts were made to conceal the disaster, including evidence of Whitehall officials destroying documents, the Infected Blood Inquiry found.

Patients were knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection, the probe found.

The 2,527-page report documents a “catalogue of failures” which had “catastrophic” consequences, not only among people infected with contaminated blood and blood products, but also their loved ones.

More than 30,000 people were infected with deadly viruses while receiving NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s, in a disaster described by inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff as a “calamity”.

They were given contaminated blood and blood products, including people 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.

Sir Brian said “the scale of what happened is horrifying”, with more than 3,000 people dead as a result and survivors battling for decades to uncover the truth.

“Lord Winston famously called these events ‘the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS’. I have to report that it could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided,” his report states.

It has been estimated that one person dies as a result of infected blood every four days.

Sir Brian met with a standing ovation when he delivered a statement to victims and their loved ones on Monday.

He said: “For everyone involved the evidence given to this inquiry has been difficult to listen to, that is an understatement. It has been hard for those centrally involved; and must have been hard for many observing.

“But it has been much harder still for those who were recounting their own experiences, or listening to stories which touched a nerve, which brought back memories they would rather have forgotten but had brought themselves to tell the inquiry because their truth was important to tell.

“The harm that was done to people cannot adequately be put into words, I have tried. But parents watched their children suffer and, in many cases, die.

“Children witnessed the decline and death of one, sometimes both, parents and their lives were irrevocably altered as a result.

“People had to care for their grievously ill partners or other family members, often at the expense of their own health and careers.”