Contaminated Blood

Debate between Jessica Morden and Huw Irranca-Davies

Thursday 15th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to the right hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) and others who have worked on this issue for some time, as well as those whose names are on the Order Paper today, those who contributed to the report of the all-party parliamentary group and all hon. Members who have spoken today.

I will not name any names in my speech—my constituents have asked me not to do so because of their continuing fear of stigmatisation. I shall use their words, however, because, frankly, I have nothing more powerful to say.

[Jessica Morden]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way so early in his speech. He, like me, is the Member for a Welsh constituency. Does he agree that it is important that as we move forward the Government work closely with the Welsh Government, particularly on things such as treatments, so that there is help for those Welsh constituents now that health is devolved?

[Huw Irranca-Davies]

I agree very much with my hon. Friend. We need a UK solution because this is a UK problem, so work must be done in concert with the devolved Administrations and Governments.

My constituent says that in 1982:

“We were called into consultant’s office, at the…Hospital…My future wife was pregnant and we were strongly advised to have a termination. However, he was not specific about reasons why, other than the possibility of our child either having or carrying haemophilia, so we refused.

1983—Our son was born and they wanted to take a blood test from him. It was after this they told us of my…HIV infection, at this early stage they had no idea what it entailed. We were advised not to mention to other patients at the hospital and to refrain from sexual intercourse until they knew more. Thankfully our son did not have the virus. Feeling uncertain about the future, it was awful to be told we had to keep this to ourselves. At this time it was very much publicised in the media and friends of ours, who knew of my Haemophilia began questioning us on whether or not I had been affected. Suffice to say I felt I was on borrowed time and on my own admittance, went off the rails and neglected my son and new wife.

1985—My wife fell pregnant again and convinced I was going to die sometime soon, the fear and uncertainty about the future made us feel we had no option but to have a termination.”

He goes on to say that a support group was set up and:

“We began attending meetings with the group and felt better for the support but sadly the participants began dying at an alarming rate and it just made the situation worse.

1991—My brother, who also had Haemophilia and HIV passed away. Prior to this we had undergone clinical trials at the hospital and because we were brothers, he was given the placebo. The guilt I felt because I was taking the actual product and had survived was indescribable. The following year my second brother was tragically killed.

1993—In short I had given up, I knew I was going to die and felt I could fight no longer. I ended up in hospital with PCP pneumonia and my wife was told I had a matter of weeks. Even though I had given up on myself thankfully my family and the hospital staff hadn’t…and I eventually pulled through.”

He goes on to describe their three-and-a-half-year fight from 1995 to become the first couple with HIV status in the UK to adopt despite being told no, no and no again. He continues:

“2001—We were asked to consider adopting two more children”,

in addition to the one they had adopted during that period,

“a boy and a girl aged five and seven. We agreed and my wife finally had the family she had been craving. It was just after this, I was told I had also contracted Hepatitis C and possibly vCJD. Obviously we were devastated and all the old uncertainties we had pushed to the back of our minds pushed forward with force. However, all was not lost I was assured a treatment was available.

2002—Late in the year, I began treatment for Hepatitis C. We had been warned prior to this, I wasn’t going to be easy to live with but looking back now I feel this was an understatement. The two children we had living with us, had severe psychological problems and their behaviour just served to exacerbate the situation and subsequently the placement broke down.

2003—The two children went back into care and I found myself unable to cope with my grieving wife and my two existing children. I wasn’t in a very good place at this time and my wife and I came very close to separation. It was only because we had been together since we were sixteen and married at seventeen, we worked to stay together. The treatment reacted with my HIV drugs and I ended up in High Dependency with Pancreatitis. Following this, my wife had to sell her business as I was ill and unable to cope at home without significant help.”