Infected blood victim 'still coming to terms' with experience

A man who contracted hepatis C from contaminated blood has said he is "still coming to terms" with his experience.

Matt Lincoln contracted the infection through a blood transfusion while being treated for leukaemia.

Having recently been cured of the virus, he has now started helping others who have been infected.

He is one of around 30,000 victims who were infected through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

The scandal has been described by MPs as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history.

In 1988 Matt Lincoln, then three-years-old, was diagnosed with leukaemia and admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where he underwent multiple treatments including chemotherapy, radiotherapy and multiple blood transfusions.

Ten years after going into remission, he found out a blood transfusion he had received during his treatment had given him hepatitis C.

He said: "My parents and I were essentially told that 'at least the cancer wasn't there anymore' and that 'if he hadn't had the transfusions, he'd be dead'."

"The message was always just to be grateful and that hepatitis C was just a 'side effect' of the treatment."

A public inquiry into the scandal started in 2019 after years of campaigning by victims, who claim the risks were never explained and the scandal was covered up.

Mr Lincoln, from Shinfield in Berkshire, said until recently he had spent his whole childhood and adult life "unaware of the bigger implications".

In 2023 Royal Berkshire Hospital contacted him after a routine test at his GP had flagged his condition.

Hospital staff then explained the risks of not treating his infection and benefits of the medication that was on offer, which he said "dispelled many myths that I'd been told, or the misinformation that I thought was true".

He has now been cured of the virus, more than 25 years after he received the contaminated blood transfusion.

"I'm still coming to terms with what has happened to me and the multiple failures made along the way to make sure that I was found and treated after the initial failure of being given contaminated blood."

He now volunteers with the Hepatitis C Trust, sharing his story and helping people to get tested for the infection.

"I hope that my story might resonate and help other people feel less alone," he added.

Chairman of the public inquiry Sir Brian Langstaff, published his final recommendations in April 2023, which included full compensation for victims and relatives.

The government has said it accepts the "moral case" for compensation, but that they are not in a position to make a final decision on pay-outs until they have seen the inquiry's findings in full.

The inquiry's final report is due to be published on 20th May 2024 - having twice been delayed.

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