Contaminated blood scandal: Black Isle campaigner still waiting for proof infected blood compensation payouts will be life changing
A Black Isle campaigner in the UK infected blood scandal says he has yet to see proof that compensation payouts will be life-changing.
Although the UK government has today announced it will push ahead with the compensation scheme, haemophiliac Bruce Norval says those affected have been left in limbo.
Mr Norval was among more than 30,000 people in the UK - including 3000 in Scotland - infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
• ‘It made us social pariahs’ - Black Isle campaigner reflects on impact of infected blood scandal
• Infected blood scandal had devastating toll on Black Isle family
• Compensation 'is not like a lottery win'
After campaigning for decades to expose the truth, he was finally vindicated in May after a scathing report concluded that the tragedy affecting thousands could have been avoided and found the NHS and government to be culpable.
The previous government announced a compensation scheme shortly before the general election and the new Labour government has announced its intention to press ahead as quickly as possible.
Regulations will be passed before August 24 to allow the first payments to be made by the end of the year.
But Mr Norval said: “Generally the State has given us no reason to trust them and until we see the cold hard numbers proposed we are still left in limbo with too many struggling in unsuitable housing and little or no joined up care support.
“This has taken 41 years since it was first publicly exposed and has foreshadowed my whole life and diminished my access to medical care to this day. I’ve yet to see proof these proposals will turn into truly life changing amounts.”
Mr Norval was diagnosed with haemophilia aged three and subsequently tested positive for Hepatitis C and other active viruses in 1990 after receiving infected blood and unknowingly used as a human guinea pig for research.
It has consigned him to a lifetime of chronic ill health, depression, social isolation, unemployment, financial hardship, broken family relationships - and a relentless search for answers in the face of not being believed.
It has also had a devastating impact and wreaked havoc on his wife, Christine, and their son and daughter plus other family members which continue to this day.
Payouts under the scheme will start by the end of the year for survivors, and by next year for people affected such as family members, under a second set of regulations.
