A WOMAN who fought for her late brother's infected blood-related death to be recognised says she feels "validation" following a report into a "horrifying" national scandal.
Marc Payton, who previously lived in Bromsgrove, was one of dozens of haemophiliacs who died after being given treatment with contaminated blood products whilst attending Treloar College in Hampshire in the 1970s.
His sister Janine Jones, who lives in Catshill, said her brother was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 when he was 23 and told he had hepatitis C in 1990. She said Mr Payton faced health issues and depression before he died in 2003 aged 41.
The Infected Blood Inquiry, which published its final report on Monday (May 20), found that children with bleeding disorders who attended Treloar College, where pupils with haemophilia were treated at an on-site NHS centre, were treated as “objects for research”.
Of the pupils that attended the Treloar College in the 1970s and 1980s, “very few escaped being infected” and of the 122 pupils with haemophilia that attended the school between 1970 and 1987, only 30 are still alive.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the exploitation of children at Treloar’s a source of “eternal shame” that is “hard to even comprehend” in a statement to the House of Commons.
Several pupils at the boarding school in Hampshire were given treatment for haemophilia at an on-site NHS centre while receiving their education.
But it was later found that many pupils with the condition had been treated with plasma blood products which were infected with hepatitis and HIV.
Haemophilia is an inherited disorder where the blood does not clot properly.
In the 1970s, a new treatment was developed – factor concentrate – to replace the missing clotting agent, which was made from donated human blood plasma.
The 2,527-page report, written by inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, concluded that children at Treloar’s were treated with multiple commercial concentrates that were known to carry higher risks of infection and that staff favoured the “advancement of research” above the best interests of the children.
Reacting to the report findings, Mrs Jones said: “It’s validation. It’s what people have been campaigning for over 40 years. We were right all along.
“My brother always had an inkling he was being used as a Guinea pig and he was. The proof is there.
“We have got the outcome that we have all wanted. We were hoping it would all go in our favour and it has. It’s very critical.
“I want people held to account over it because wrongs have been done on every level”.
Following the publication of the report, a spokesperson for Treloar's said: “The Inquiry’s report shows the full extent of this horrifying national scandal.
"We are devastated that some of our former pupils were so tragically affected and hope that the findings provide some solace for them and their families.
"The report lays bare the systemic failure at the heart of the scandal. Whilst today is about understanding how and why people were given infected blood products in the 1970s and 80s, it is absolutely right that the Government has committed to establishing a proper compensation scheme.
"This must happen urgently after such a long wait".
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