Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry
(Image via Haemophilia Society)
Dear Mr Brown,I write to you once again as the widow of Peter Longstaff, a haemophiliac who died in 2005 as a result of being given contaminated blood (HIV and hepatitis viruses and exposed to v CJD) in one of the UK’s worst scandals of the last 40 years, a cover-up spanning several decades. My brother in law Stephen, also a haemophiliac died of AIDS in 1986.
We are now only months away from the publication of the final report from Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry. This is a time when we must learn lessons from the past and prepare for the best possible outcome for all those infected and affected that have suffered great harm and losses and fought so bravely for truth and justice… the haemophilia community.
Long standing campaigners (that know our history inside out) have watched Sir Brian and the Inquiry team operate with care, empathy and great attention to detail with regard to investigating and analysing evidence, listening to and questioning witnesses. For many of us trust was non existent at the start of the Inquiry due to years of lies and betrayal but now we dare to believe that Sir Brian will do all he can to produce a meaningful and effective final report. We thank him and those supporting his work.
At the time of the Archer Inquiry which was privately funded, (the late) Lord Morris of Manchester, first Minister for Disabled and a great champion of our rights worked with due diligence, compassion and understanding of our needs to produce the Contaminated Blood Bill. This would have put Lord Archer’s important recommendations including health care needs and compensation for infected and bereaved families into legislation. It would also have guaranteed that no minister or government could retract from commitments given and instead would be legally bound to implement and uphold what was written in the report. The bill of that time was known as the Contaminated Blood (Support for Infected and Bereaved Persons) Bill and can be viewed on the following link,
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/549
On 2nd February, 2010, a letter from Haydn Lewis (an infected haemophiliac) was published in the Guardian in response to the article Contaminated Blood Bill Will Bring Justice, it read as follows,
There is only one person who has the power to make this bill law – Gordon Brown. But to date he has never spoken publicly about this issue. Surely no one in full knowledge of this issue, and with the power to make this bill law, could remain silent. The haemophilia community and all infected deserve this wrong to be righted. I write this letter with a current worse-case prognosis of six months due to HCC liver cancer caused by hepatitis C, so to finally hear the PM state his support would mean so much to my family after 30 years of waiting for some accountability.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/contaminated-blood-bill-justice-hiv
Haydn died soon after leaving a family devastated. His brother Gareth was another victim, both campaigned strenuously for truth and justice.
The reality is that some politicians, cross party, had and still do have a lot to hide, were implicated in the cover-up and at the time of Archer were more focused more on “damage limitation” for successive governments than backing a bill. As my campaign colleague Colette Wintle (a female haemophiliac infected with hepatitis B and C) recently stated,
I met with Alf (Lord Morris) and sat with him at the last debate he attended before he died and it was heartbreaking to hear how angry and saddened he was because he had not had the cross party MP’s backing him with his much needed Bill.
Nick, I recall when you were Chief Whip you blocked Alf’s bill. It may be that you didn’t fully appreciated the level of negligence by public bodies at that time. However, it would be hard not to recognize that now. The Dept of Health have recently delayed their apology as they need to get right what they are apologizing for and face an estimated bill of between £5billion to £10billion as stated in the Times recently. DOH will no doubt need more time due to the extensive list of serious failings and safety violations now firmly documented with the Inquiry. With so much money at stake, this is all the more reason that we require a bill and accountability with not only compensation payments but that the monthly payments continue to be paid through EIBBS “for life” as we were told during the Inquiry would be the case.
You now have a second chance to raise the matter of an updated or new Contaminated Blood Bill putting the full and final recommendations of Sir Brian into legislation and I request that you look at ways to initiate this process with the relevant persons in government as a matter needing urgent attention and hopefully a sponser can be found this. Those infected and affected have no time to wait or waste and are dying at an alarming rate. Our national Haemophilia Society highlighted the following on their website,
Since the inquiry was announced, we estimate that more than 500 people infected and affected by the scandal have died. More will die before the inquiry reaches its conclusions in autumn 2023. This is a tragedy which continues to take and devastate lives.
Thank- you and I look forward to hearing from you and welcome your support.
Kind Regards
Carol
Contact details supplied
Carol Anne Grayson is an independent writer/researcher on global health/human rights/WOT and is Executive Producer of the Oscar nominated, Incident in New Baghdad. She was a Registered Mental Nurse with a Masters in Gender Culture and Development. Carol was awarded the ESRC, Michael Young Prize for Research 2009, and the COTT ‘Action = Life’ Human Rights Award’ for “upholding truth and justice”. She is also a survivor of US “collateral damage”.
Carol Anne Grayson (Radical Sister) blog 
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
Thanks for reblogging, much appreciated The more publicity the better, British govt has covered up far too much. Long standing campaigners of 3 decades have now exposed their negligence, wrongdoing and subsequent cover up submitting large amounts of evidence and incriminating documents to the Infected Blood Inquiry. Now government must apologise and accept responsibility for those harmed by the state, compensate speedily and put Sir Brian Langtaff’s recommendations into legislation… no wriggle room this time around!
My son Spencer BRAITHWAITE died 17 years ago on 25th march as a result of being given contaminated factor8 as treatment for haemophilia. My son was diagnosed as a haemophiliac in 1976 and the government apparently knew about the American company making the factor 8 with blood bought from drug addicts, prostitutes & convicts in 1975 !!!! The haemophiliacs stood no chance of survival as they had regular treatments with factor 8 & have been ignored for 40 years. How many more people have to die before this is sorted , we need proper closure with the acknowledgment that this should never have happened & won’t happen again . Also the government need to accept they handled this so badly & caused us endless suffering.
Dear Mrs Braithwaite, I am so very sorry to hear that your son was a victim of state negligence. Thank-you so much for your poignant and inciteful comment. Actually the UK government knew of the dangers of pooled plasma factor concentrates much earlier than 1975. I testified to the Infected Blood Inquiry that the dangers of pooled plasma (before concentrates) were known in the 1940s and gave evidence and a comprehensive timeline from then on who knew what and when. Concentrates were introduced earlier in the US during the 1960s and as soon as that happened you had clusters of hepatitis outbreaks in US haemophiliacs . My mantra and argument going back decades is that factor concentrates should NEVER have been introduced without FIRST finding a way to virally inactvate even if that meant delaying and keeping haemophiliacs on cryoprecipitate. During my research I learnt that there was research into viral inactivation BEFORE the introduction of concentrates in the US but that funding of that research was pulled in order for the plarma compsnies to get their products on the shelves. Yes prisoners were used as plasma donors from the 1960s and I also submitted large amounts of evidence related to prison plasma, plasma from skid row donors, gay donors and sex workers. Some haemophiliacs including my late husband were able to work with Americal lawyers and trace back infected batches to individual name prison donors. Much of the most important and damning evidence was obtained at the time of the HIV litigation but never shown to litigants in 1991. Government destroyed these documents but I found copies now with the Inquiry. Government officials were sent and shown this evidence from the 1990s onwards. What isn’t helping our cases now is new campaigners specifically Jason Evans lying about dates of discovery and presenting the documents I discovered over 2 decades ago as “newly discovered” by him from 2017 onwards. This not only undermines the work of those that campaigned for decades but were blocked by government but allows government off the hook. I can state for the record that my campaign colleague Colette Wintle and I sat in meetings with ministers at Westminster early 2000s and highlighted this incriminating evidence time and time again. Sir Brian now has a very good understanding of the true Timeline of discovery and the extent of this scandal. I have stated to the Cabinet Office in writing certain areas where they must apologise, including “dumped” US treatment cases. I have also highlighted the urgent need to compensate specially infected that are ill and dying and the older generation infected and affected that don’t have time to wait and that includeds older parents of haemophiliacs. “Closure” is in many ways an inadequate word for all you and others and my family have suffered but a full apology and compensation will hopefully help to give some peace of mind and security for what is left of all our lives and we will have done our duty to those we lost by honoring their memory and right to justice… Take care Carol