Victims of UK's infected blood scandal who campaigned for justice honoured at Pride of Britain

Three campaigners who helped to uncover the were honoured at the Mirror’s awards tonight.

Andy Evans, Michelle Tolley and Jason Evans were given special recognition awards at London’s Grosvenor House.

Michelle said: “It’s an honour for everybody who was infected and affected and those who sadly fell asleep too soon due to the contaminated blood scandal.”

Andy added: “We’re here on behalf of everybody involved in the scandal, including people who haven’t made it this far.

“While we’re here and having fun, we have to think of all these people, too. It’s truly an honour to be representing them tonight, and we’re carrying all of them with us.”

The is one of the most harrowing public health disasters in UK history.

In the 1970s and 1980s, , including hepatitis C and HIV, after receiving contaminated blood and clotting factor products.

One of the main culprits was Factor VIII, a treatment used by haemophiliacs to help blood clot.

Instead of saving lives, it exposed vulnerable patients to life-threatening diseases.

Although we will never know how many people were affected by the horrific scandal, as many are no longer with us, it is the bravery and strength of the victims in the face of stigma and illness that has helped to bring this terrible scandal to light.

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In May 2024, the UK public inquiry published its final report - more than 50 years since the first victims were given infected blood.

At the time, then PM called the scandal a decades-long moral failure.

The damning document found that the disaster “was not an accident” and could “largely, though not entirely, have been avoided”.

Victims were blocked from finding out what had happened as deliberate attempts were made to cover up what had happened, the inquiry found, and patients were knowingly exposed to an unacceptable level of risk.

The total cost of compensation is expected to run into billions of pounds, with the first payments to victims set to be made by the end of the year.

Infected Blood Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff criticised a “catalogue of failures” that led to avoidable deaths, as campaigners gave him a standing ovation for his blistering report.

In February, announced that it had approved a drama about the infected blood scandal after the success of its series about Post Office workers fighting for justice.

Peter Moffat – who won two Baftas for the series Criminal Justice and also created the screenplay for the film , about the Duke of York’s disastrous Newsnight interview – is set to write the series.

At last night’s Pride of Britain, three of these campaigners won a Special Recognition award for their work to uncover the truth.

Here, they tell the their stories

Andy Evans

Andy Evans was just 12 years old when his mother drove him into the countryside and parked up at a local beauty spot. “I could tell she was upset. I didn’t know why,” explained Andy, 47, of the moment his life changed forever. “She then told me I had HIV and the Factor VIII that I’d been having had been contaminated, and they didn’t know how long I was going to live. To stop her being upset, I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I won’t die; I will become a doctor or a scientist and learn how to cure it.’”

Andy, who grew up in Birmingham, was diagnosed with haemophilia as a baby and had been using Factor VIII, the concentrated blood clotting protein touted as a wonder drug to stop internal bleeding since he was a toddler. Unbelievably, at three years and ten months, the youngster had even started injecting himself. “I said, can I have a go? I took the needle off the nurse and got it the first time straight away,” he explains. But by the time he was 16, Andy had developed AIDS as a result of the infected treatment. “I lost incredible amounts of weight, and I had to be fed by a tube,” he says. “They would give me really high doses of steroids, which made my hip bones crumble. I was unable to walk as well. Several times, my parents were told to be prepared to say goodbye.”

Thankfully Andy, who lives in Worcester, was put on combination therapy when it came out - just in time - but his illness, and the stigma surrounding it, has had a huge effect on his life. “I didn’t tell anybody. If you have cancer, you tell people, but you don’t tell people if you have got AIDS,” he says. “Within our community, there were people who had their diagnosis revealed without their consent, and they had ‘AIDS scum’ scrawled on their car and scratched into their houses.”

When Andy was finally well enough to leave the hospital, he was 20 years old and had lost much of his formative years battling for his life. “It took me a good few years to figure out my place in the ,” says Andy. Although he didn’t end up becoming a doctor or scientist like he promised his mother, Andy has instead made a huge impact through campaigning and helping other victims of the scandal.

He co-founded the Tainted Blood campaign in 2006, which pushed for an independent inquiry into the infected blood scandal and helped and supported many others like himself. On winning a Pride of Britain award, Andy says, “It was completely unexpected. I’ve never done this for any other reason to help other people. This award is a recognition of the campaign as a whole and the people who have gone before me and are sadly not with us anymore. This is all for them. It makes me feel really proud.”

Michelle Tolley

In 1987, Michelle Tolley gave birth to her son Daniel after an 18-hour traumatic labour, and she lost lots of blood. “He was a big baby; he was ten pounds,” she explains. “I needed four pints of blood. And in that blood, unbeknownst to me, was hepatitis C virus,” explains Michelle from Norfolk. “I didn’t find out until the end of 2016, meaning that I’d had hepatitis C for 28 years.”

She was given a second blood transfusion when she had her twins, Natalie and Dale. “I had a second blood transfusion in February 1991 after my twins were born. And kind of from that onwards, you know, I was always tired. I think the fatigue hit me first,” she says.

Then, in 1996, she watched a TV segment explaining that some blood used for transfusions hadn’t been screened. Michelle instantly believed that this must have happened to her. “I went along to my GP and told him how fatigued I was feeling and that I had two blood transfusions before 1991, and he said, ‘Of course you’re tired; you have four children, and just poo-pooed me out the door.’

Leading up to being diagnosed, she was told she had type two diabetes in 2004, and her health steadily declined. “I was ridiculously tired; I was waking up like I hadn’t been to sleep. My skin was itching terribly badly; I was freezing cold one minute, then hot sweats the next. I had insomnia and always felt like I was about to get the flu,” she says. “Hepatitis is a silent killer.”

In 2016, she started losing lots of weight and became convinced she was going to die.

One day, doctors called her in for a blood test after finding problems with her liver.

“The GP rang me and said I am really sorry, but you have tested positive for Hepatitis C. I need you to come into the surgery. I crumpled to the floor, crying hysterically. I went through stages of crying and disbelief. I didn’t want to go out, and I didn’t want to speak to anybody. I felt dirty, I remember sitting in the bath and scrubbing myself, thinking, ‘Oh my God, I have this disgusting thing inside me.’ I used to shut my eyes and see a coffin with my name on it. It made me feel like I couldn’t trust anyone.”

Michelle was absorbed by the anger - mainly directed at the turned her away in the nineties. “I said to my husband, ‘I am going to have to turn this anger into a positive’,” says Michelle. She decided to share her story on the local radio station in 2017 and has been speaking out ever since.

“I thought if I could at least help one person get treatment, it could bring that positivity back. I have been very involved with the inquiry.”

Although Michelle still suffers from many health conditions, she will not give up her fight to help others, running support groups and raising awareness. “So many people have fought so hard for so many years. The inquiry results felt like we’d been heard by the system, this Pride of Britain award feels like we have been heard by the people, and that’s amazing.”

Jason Evans

Jason Evans was just four years old when his father passed away from AIDS after he was infected with HIV and Hepatitis C. The 37-year-old from Coventry describes the scandal as “a permanent cloud that’s always been hanging over me, my whole life.”

He continues, “Even when I was born, it was centred around HIV, as everyone was dressed in protective suits, and there were biohazard stickers everywhere. I was immediately given an HIV test.”

Haemophiliac Jonathan Evans was infected in 1984 and passed away in 1993, robbing Jason of a fun-loving and doting father. He had to watch his mother “crumble” from sadness, and he only found out why after, at 10 years old, a girl called him ‘AIDS boy’ in the playground.

“For the longest time after that, when people ask how my dad died, if it ever came up, I would definitely lie. I’d say, you know, heart attack, cancer, something more normal. It took until my teenage years for me to even begin to understand about Factor VIII infected blood products.”

After the release of the Penrose Inquiry in 2015, which concluded few matters could have been done differently and made only a single recommendation, Jason felt that he needed to act. “I saw it on TV, and I felt really angry and frustrated and I just had the feeling that this cannot be the last word on this,” he says.

As a result, Jason launched campaign group Factor 8 in 2016, which also played a crucial role in securing a public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal and the legal battle of victims. He says, “Winning a Pride of Britain Award is an incredible recognition of the fight we’ve been through. It’s for the community who have fought hard for so long.”

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