Welwyn Garden City's Stuart Blake died in 2006 at the age of just 27, after a long battle with AIDS and hepatitis C given to him through infected blood. His parents, Mike and Diana, sat down with reporter Dan Mountney to tell his story and how the scandal changed their lives.
"He suffered horrifically, right from being a little boy," an emotional Diana said.
Her and husband Mike - who have lived in Welwyn Garden City for 40 years - had been trying for a baby for four years when in 1978, Stuart arrived.
At the age of just 13 months, Diana noticed "nasty bruises" appearing on their new-born son, with little to no idea where they came from.
"When I was expecting my daughter, I needed to have the doctor out, so I asked him to check Stuart's bruises. A blood test was done, and initially they thought his blood clotted too easily, but he was eventually diagnosed with haemophilia A," she told the Welwyn Hatfield Times.
Stuart was deficient in Factor VIII, an essential blood clotting protein, but a ground-breaking treatment had been introduced in the 1970s which could solve the problem.
Factor VIII was made by pooling plasma from tens of thousands of donors, but with the UK struggling to meet the demand, supplies were imported from the US.
Much of this blood came from high-risk groups, such as prisoners and drug users, who had been paid to make donations. If just one donor was carrying a virus, the entire batch could be contaminated.
"A death sentence"
Stuart was injected with Factor VIII, but in 1983, the first signs of illness began to appear and he was diagnosed with what is now known as hepatitis C.
Two years later, things would get far worse for the Blake family as Stuart was given what his mother Diana described as "a death sentence".
"He had what we thought was a routine blood test at Great Ormond Street Hospital, but we were called in after the test and told that Stuart was HIV positive," she remembers.
"The day we found out was the day he found out. We’d gone into a room to be told, and he was in the play area. When we came out, he wanted to know what we were talking about, because he was the sort of child that needed to know.
"We never lied to our children so he was told. He knew from that moment he was going to die. He lived with a death sentence."
At a public inquiry which concluded in May this year, it was revealed that 1,250 people in the UK with bleeding disorders such as haemophilia, developed both HIV and hepatitis C.
380 of those were children just like Stuart.
Across the UK, 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis C.
Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff found that there had been a lack of openness from the government and the NHS, which he described as "downright deception".
He also said people were not told about the risks of Factor VIII, even though the danger of viral infections in blood products had been known since 1948.
"The infections happened because those in authority - doctors, the blood services and successive governments - did not put patient safety first," he said.
"Beggars can't be choosers"
In the late 1980s, there was a huge fear and stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS, not helped by demonising public health adverts that aired on TV.
The Blake family experienced this first hand, with Diana recalling a shocking story from Stuart's youth.
"He had to have an operation just after he’d been diagnosed with HIV, and the hospital staff at QEII knew he was positive," she remembers.
"After his operation, his stitches burst, and no one would physically touch him, so I had to stem the bleeding."
Mike picks up the story, continuing: "He had to then be transferred to Great Ormond Street, and they couldn’t find an ambulance crew who would take him.
"Eventually they found a crew that would do it, so they came into this room where he had been isolated, and they were wearing these big hazmat suits. It frightened the life out of him.
"He was hurried out the back entrance of QEII, and Diana had to sit in the back of the ambulance, from Welwyn Garden City to Great Ormond Street, stemming the bleeding the whole way."
It wasn't an isolated incident, with Diana adding: "He wasn’t always treated kindly.
"There was one time he had to go to Great Ormond Street because he’d been in contact with someone who had chicken pox. When he got there he was isolated as always, and they gave him this tatty old black and white TV.
"I asked if we could have a better TV, and the nurse told me, 'beggars can’t be choosers'. I have never forgotten those words, and I’ve always said if I write a book that would be the title.
"He was just a little boy who had been infected through no fault of his own. He wasn’t a beggar. They did this to him."
Lost faith and answers
In 2017, and after years of pressure, then Prime Minister Theresa May finally announced a full public inquiry into the infected blood scandal.
It was around this time that the Blake family and other victims began to get answers.
"When we got into things like his medical records, we found large swathes of them had been deleted or were unavailable," Mike said.
"When you look at his early records, every time he got an injection there was a batch number. But then there was this cut off date, and when he was getting injections, there were no batch numbers. They suddenly stop. That’s the sort of thing we were up against."
"When you take your child to see a doctor or to hospital, you have 100 per cent trust. You aren’t going to question your doctor. You don’t do that. I now don’t trust doctors. I have no faith, and Stuart lost faith as well," Diana added.
The couple were full of praise for inquiry chairman Sir Langstaff, with Mike saying: "When you read the inquiry, he doesn’t pull any punches and tells it how it is. We needed someone to do that.
"The final day was unbelievable, because we finally heard that what we’d lived and believed for all these years was true."
Now finally able to tell their story, they appeared on BBC's Panorama alongside other victims of the scandal, but Mike believes they must continue their fight to bring people to justice and "make sure this doesn’t happen again".
"Journalist Hugh Pym said to me 'I assume this is the beginning of the end', and I said 'no, this is only the beginning'," he said.
"There is obviously the compensation element, but that is not the main thing for us. We’ll take it because it’s Stuart’s right, and the money will go to our grandchildren because that’s what he would have wanted.
"But for me, I think this could happen again if nobody is brought to justice. If people high up in the government and the NHS can do what they’ve done and get away with it, they’ll keep doing it.
"How can they justify infecting people knowingly? We’ve got to make sure this doesn’t happen again."
Shockingly, the Blake family are yet to receive any compensation, and despite the findings of the inquiry, and emotional Diana admitted she still blames herself for Stuart's illness.
"Factor VIII had to be injected into his veins and I did that at home. I was trained how to do it because treating him at home was easier, but by that point he was already infected.
"The thing that breaks my heart is that I would have taken him to those treatments that infected him. I blame myself for that. I blame myself for giving him haemophilia because I am a carrier, and I didn’t know it at the time.
"I have had to live my life with that."
Happier times
Stuart died in 2006, at the age of just 27, but despite his illness and worsening health, he "lived his life to the full".
"Because he had that death sentence hanging over him, he was going to do everything he could," Mike said.
As the couple flicked through family photos of Stuart, Diana revealed a "happy board' which was on display at his funeral, covered in more pictures and with stories from his life.
Among them were tales of his golfing exploits and playing off an impressive four handicap, rock climbing, abseiling, flying a plane over glaciers in Norway and opal mining in Australia.
"My cousin and her husband lived in Australia and worked as opal miners," Mike explained.
"We went over there on holiday to see them, and we went opal mining for the day. He loved blasting the dynamite, and there aren’t many 13-year-old boys who get that opportunity."
Although he couldn't work, Stuart did manage to get his own flat and spend plenty of time with friends, who still get emotional when they talk about him with Mike and Diana.
There are smiles and laughter as more stories from Stuart's extraordinary life spill out, including a stunning karaoke performance of Achy Breaky Heart that his sister Laura remembers fondly, and a visit from Willow Foundation founder and legendary Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson while he was in a hospice.
"Stuart was a big Arsenal fan. At this point, he couldn’t communicate, but Bob spoke with him and us for hours," Mike remembers.
There are tales of pranks in Great Ormond Street too, and one moment of defiance that exemplified Stuart's will to live.
"While he was at Great Ormond Street, there was group of young haemophiliacs who would go for regular treatment. One day, they decided they would go and have lunch at McDonalds, so they marched down there with their cannulas in and all this other stuff," Mike says with a beaming smile.
"He loved his family and loved life when he was feeling well. He tried not to let things get in his way."
"Go and get tested"
At the time his death, Stuart suffered from AIDS, Parkinson's and dementia.
Diana recalled one moment just months before his passing that sticks with her, saying: "He wanted to live, but he got to the point where he couldn’t. He couldn’t cope with the battle anymore.
"I’ll never forget Christmas Day 2005. We had a little walk around the block with the dog, and Stuart could still walk a little bit at that stage.
"We stopped and we all looked up at the stars, and then he turned to us and said, 'I’m going to be up there soon, aren’t I?'. I said yes, because I couldn’t lie to him. We all knew it."
Despite the trauma of Stuart's illness and death, Mike said the tragedy has brought the family closer together.
"Things like this can destroy families, but for us we’ve been very close knit," he said.
"We fought for a long time, but then we got on with life. We tried to get on with life because we had a family. These things can take over your life to the detriment of the rest of your family. We needed to think about Laura and the grandchildren."
"Nothing is going to bring Stuart or anyone else who died back then, but we need to put this to bed because it’s hanging over people. I want Stuart to rest in peace," Diana added.
To close out the interview, Mike issued an important message, saying: "There are a lot of people out there who don’t realise they have been infected with hepatitis C because it is symptomless.
"Any body who has had a blood transfusion from an operation in the 1970s or 80s should go and get tested. By the time it shows itself it is too late, and the scale of it is shocking."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here