Carrying on dad's 45-year fight for blood scandal justice

Teacher David Edwards, a victim of the infected blood scandal, had HIV and hepatitis B and C but he kept campaigning for justice throughout his life. His daughter, Lucretia, is continuing that fight. Ruth Mosalski reports

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GROWING up, Lucretia Edwards knew lots of things about her dad he was well read, interested in science and philosophy, but never sports.

He was disabled and walked on crutches, but some things were kept from her and her brother. Like why her dad's toothbrush was kept separate from theirs in the bathroom, in a travel container.

It was only when she was around 25 that she was told her father had HIV and hepatitis C, one of the victims of the contaminated blood scandal. The family has recently discovered he also had hepatitis B.

David Edwards' early years were defined by his severe haemophilia. Born in 1935, he spent a lot of his childhood in Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

His treatment overlapped with the Second World War and he could remember the bombs of the Blitz hitting London and glass landing on his bed as windows shattered.

He wasn't ever well enough to go to school, but he had a tutor in English and maths, and went on to study philosophy at university. He was disabled and always needed the help of crutches to walk, but Lucretia said: "He had a very full life and was very positive."

In his early twenties, as a newlywed, he had a number of near-death experiences due to his haemophilia. When a treatment came out that could be administered at home, he took up the offer. It was that treatment, of Factor VIII plasma, which led to him being infected with hepatitis C, HIV and hepatitis B.

David was interested in science and read the New Scientist.

In the early 1980s, it was David who approached medics at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, to tell them about the possibility of contamination.