Families praise our investigation

A WOMAN whose husband died in the scandal has praised The Mail on Sunday campaign.

Carol Grayson, 62, from Newcastle upon Tyne, whose haemophiliac husband Peter Longstaff passed away in 2005 after being infected with HIV and hepatitis C, said: ‘Susan Douglas’s story was hugely significant because she identified two haemophiliacs who appeared to have AIDS symptoms. That was the first time it was in the media. She was absolutely right with her concerns. I thought it was hardhitting and it needed to be.’

Rosemary Calder, whose son Nicky died in 1999 after he was infected with HIV, said: ‘In 1983, I saw The Mail on Sunday. I read it and I read it again – it was just a moment of panic and fear. What was coming up for this little boy, just coming up to nine years old? I did contact his consultant and was told the risks were minimal.

‘I hope those responsible will acknowledge their wrongdoing and I hope the lives that have been lost will be acknowledged.

We want some form of justice.’ Adrian Goodyear, 51, vividly remembers seeing a copy of the newspaper as a 12-year-old at Treloar College, a boarding school in Hampshire that taught children with haemophilia.

‘I saw the Killer Blood headline and felt an indelible fear. I knew from that moment we were in real trouble,’ he said. Two years later he was diagnosed with HIV after receiving contaminated blood. His brother Jason died of AIDS in 1997 and brother Gary died of hepatitis C in 2015.