'We deserve help and we are at the back of queue' says son of infected blood scandal victim

SON SAYS HEPATITIS B SUFFERERS NOT GETTING SAME RECOGNITION

- By KATIE GREEN

A CAMBRIDGESHIRE man says people who suffer with Hepatitis B are not getting the recognition they deserve after a national scandal saw thousands infected with contaminated blood products over a 20-year period.

The infected blood scandal, which took place between 1970 and the early 1990s, affected more than 30,000 people who were infected with HIV and Hepatitis B and C as a result of contaminated blood, as well as more than 3,000 deaths.

Hearings are being held this week (May 7 and May 8) to examine the timeliness and adequacy of the Government's response to compensating those affected by the scandal.

This is part of an ongoing inquiry that is now seeing people or carers of people who were affected by the scandal being compensated.

However, Mark Lawler from Fulbourn, whose mum Margaret was supposedly infected with both Hepatitis B and C following a blood transfusion at Addenbrooke's Hospital in 1977, said that those infected and affected by Hepatitis B are not getting the recognition compared to those affected by Hepatitis C.