Grandpa's trauma at being infected with HIV in 1980s school blood transfusion
Distraught Gary Webster said he was warned aged 17 that he had just two years to live after being treated for haemophilia with contaminated blood imported from the US. The 56-year-old told the public inquiry into the use of infected products that although he survived, he “went off the rails” and tried to commit suicide. He added: “We were told this was an unavoidable accident, we now know this to be untrue. “These scars will never heal…and will haunt us forever.”
He was applauded for his harrowing evidence at an inquiry, currently looking into how the scandal at Treloar special school in Hampshire led to the deaths of 72 former pupils. Mr Webster, one of only 30 known survivors, said: “I have guilt still being here. It’s the stigma. Losing 72 school friends, who you’ve known since you were that high.
“I’m an angry old man now, so I don’t think I’m that good at relationships, but it infects everyone, not just me.”
The father of one said he was told he had HIV by a doctor at the school’s NHS-run haemophilia centre, which gave him the transfusion.
“I was with a friend…We went into the room and he said, ‘I’ve got some bad news – you’re positive’.
“He said, ‘We don’t know a lot about it. We can’t guarantee that you’ll be alive in a couple of years’.
