Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hope to end tainted blood loans scandal
VICTIMS of the NHS tainted blood scandal could have loans which jeopardised their homes written off – thanks to the Sunday Mirror.
We told last month how a Government-backed charity had made deals to profit from haemophiliacs infected by contaminated blood products.
And we urged HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust to cancel the agreements after it took on responsibility for them.
Now victims who were left with hepatitis C and HIV have been told it is unlikely the money will need to be repaid.
The loans were originally given by the Macfarlane Trust,
FURY a charity set up to manage payouts. Clair Walton and husband Bryan, who died at 34 in 1993, had £50,000 of their mortgage paid off but had to give the charity a stake in their home.
It meant Clair was faced with the prospect of handing over more than half the value of her house if she moved. And it would have given the charity a
£36,000 windfall from rising prices. But the Terrence Higgins Trust has told Clair the loan, and one for £27k, may be dropped.
In a letter sent to 11 victims with outstanding loans, THT said its board of trustees was “in principle willing to write off the loans”.
But it says an assessment and interview are needed first to meet Charity Commission regulations. Clair, who got HIV from Bryan, said: “I’ve lived with this for 30 years. It will lift a huge burden.”
Sue Threakall, 65, from Barnstaple, Devon, also got a loan after husband Bob, 47, died in 1991. She said: “This is good news. Making people take
loans was an insult.” RELIEF Widow Clair THE Prodigy’s minder
Con Murphy has died just weeks after frontman Keith Flint took his own life aged 49.
Con, dubbed Superman by the band, passed away peacefully with wife Jayne and daughter Charlee by his side after a long battle with cancer.
The band said in tribute: “RIP Con. You always had our backs. You were the greatest loyal friend to us all.”