Choose a Hep C test
Choose life. Choose treatment for a virus that’s curable and treatable. Choose not to be one of the 36,000 Scots who have it. Choose a letter to Danny Boyle to raise awareness
A CHARITY worker has written a cheeky letter to Trainspotting director Danny Boyle – to raise awareness of a blood disease which commonly affects drug users.
In the letter, Petra Wright, 62, a former heroine user who works for the Hepatitis C Trust, urges him to get all his characters tested for the virus, which affects 36,000 Scots.
Renton, Spud and Sick Boy – three of the four main characters in the films – are current or former users and the fourth, Begbie, is no stranger to blood due to his violent tendencies.
About 40 per cent of people with the virus remain undiagnosed, even though it is preventable, treatable and curable.
One of the primary risk factors for Hep C is injecting drug use – something Petra knows all about after being diagnosed in 2005, 30 years after she stopped injecting heroin.
In her letter, she congratulates Boyle on the Trainspotting sequel but said: “As a representative of the only UK-wide charity for Hep C, it would be remiss of me not to ask you to contact your main characters and urge them to now be tested for Hep C.”
She then refers to the film’s main men one by one, saying that when Renton, Ewan McGregor’s character, was given the all-clear for HIV, the medical world did not recognise Hep C so he would not have been tested for it.
She said: “These days, of course, we know how debilitating and dangerous it is over a lengthy period but we also know how to cure it.”
Spud, played by Ewen Bremner, still uses intravenous drugs, but Petra said: “He obviously uses the NHS Lothian harm reduction service and needle exchange. I was happy to see the ‘one-hit kit’ supplied by the NHS being used by him.
“As he is trying to rebuild his personal relationships it would be worthwhile for him to be tested and if necessary be cured to enable him to move forward with his life.”
Jonny Lee Miller’s Sick Boy continues to inhale drugs, which is also a risk factor for Hep C and as he also drinks too much – meaning that, if he does have Hep C, he could be at risk of irreversible liver damage.
And Begbie, played by Robert Carlyle, could be at risk of Hep C – even though he doesn’t take drugs – because he may have been “exposed to another’s blood during fisticuffs or even while an inmate in HMP Saughton”.
Petra adds in the letter: “The profile of a drug user 30 years ago was totally different. Recreational users from then who maybe wouldn’t think of themselves as drug users because they only used it twice in 1982 are just as much at risk.
“You only need to have taken it once to get Hep C and people who snorted drugs like cocaine are also at risk.
“Just a tiny speck of blood is enough to carry it. There is also a five per cent chance of mother-to-baby transmission.”
In Petra’s case, problems with her hands seizing up, fatigue and dark urine flagged up that she was having liver problems.
She added: “Now you don’t need to take time off work and don’t even need to go to hospital for treatment. There is really nothing to be frightened of.”
Untreated, Hep C can lead to permanent liver scarring – cirrhosis – or liver cancer.