9:28am Sunday 4th July 2010
A VICTIM of the “bad blood” scandal has taken his fight for financial redress to Downing Street.
David Fielding, from Farnworth, was among some 4,500 haemophiliacs affected by the scandal in the 1970s and 1980s and needed a liver transplant after being given infected blood.
He joined other members of the national Haemophilia Society to deliver a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron.
The campaigners have spent the past two decades fighting for compensation for victims.
In April, Labour announced it would look at the Skipton Fund, which compensates those who contracted Hepatitis C and the Haemophilia Society wants the Government to make the same commitment.
Mr Fielding said: “We had about 250 victims and their families down in London with us and six of us went to Downing Street with our MPs to deliver the letter and a wreath in memory of the 2,000 victims.
“It was important for us to do that and I will continue to fight, as I have done for the past 17 years.”
The 54-year-old, whose brother, Brian, died in 1990 at the age of 46 after being infected with HIV, also met up with Bolton South East MP Yasmin Qureshi, who Mr Fielding hopes will continue the fight taken up by her predecessor Dr Brian Iddon.
The brothers were among 4,500 people affected by the scandal in the 1970s and 1980s. About 2,000 have now died as a result.
Mr Fielding said: “A lot of people are dying. At one time we were losing one a week, now it is about one a month. It is important that people who are still alive are coping with this infection.
“This Government and the past Government have had the money to put this to bed and compensate us, but it has still not happened.
“I don’t want to go to my grave and this not have been sorted out. I have been fighting for 17 years now and I am getting tired, worn out and angry.
“We have to start all over again with the new MPs to educate them about what happened.”
Following the scandal, a public inquiry by Lord Archer recommended better compensation for all victims and a committee to advise on haemophilia.
Attempts to get a Contaminated Blood Bill through Parliament, to implement all the recommendations, have so far failed.
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