“There was a lot of stigma, he didn’t really know much about what he had been infected with. We weren’t allowed anywhere near his plates after tea, he used to wash himself with bleach – the stench is a prominent childhood memory for me. “He wasn’t really affectionate with us because of how terrified he was of passing it to us.
He was an amazing father, but we missed out on all those hugs and kisses because he was trying to protect us.” Gareth Mossman spent his childhood quite literally living with the reality of the biggest treatment disaster the NHS has ever seen.
Not only was his father one of more than 30,000 people were infected with deadly viruses while they were receiving NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s, one room of their Wythenshawe council house was filled with documents which would later become evidence for an explosive inquiry.
His dad, Peter, was infected with hepatitis C in his 40s after being given a contaminated blood product which was supposed to help treat his haemophilia.
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