‘I want justice’: Man whose brothers died in tainted blood scandal awaits report

“I lost both my brothers because of it and I still want to be here, I want to see justice, I want to see it to the end,” Christopher Marsh said of the tainted blood scandal.

Marsh, 49, and his two brothers, Gary and Kelvin, all became infected in 1981 through imported blood products used to treat people with hemophilia. Last year he was told that his hepatitis C had become chronic and now that his brothers have long since died as a result of the infection, he is determined to end the investigation into infected blood, the final report of which will be published on May 20. and the official answer.

“My thoughts are all over the place,” he says. ‘Every waking hour I just think about whether we are going to get the right news and whether they are going to do the right thing and when.

“It all comes back because of the investigation. It doesn’t bring up many deeply hidden memories and thoughts. I have always said that I miss my brothers every day, but this makes me miss them even more because I know that if they were alive, they would be fighting and campaigning. They weren’t the ones who just stood by and let things happen. ”

While Marsh was infected with hepatitis C at the age of six – although he would not find out until ten years later – his brothers were also infected with HIV. Gary died of AIDS, at age 30, in 1992 and Kelvin died in 2000, at age 35, after his body rejected a liver transplant. “I remember my last visit,” Marsh said. “When I saw him, he had jaundice, obviously with his liver shut down, and I spent the whole time holding his hand with my eyes closed, crying to my heart. I couldn’t bear to look at him because he looked sick. We were very close.”

Their grief-stricken mother died the same year as Kelvin. Marsh, who lives in Ramsgate, Kent, said that when he heard about his own diagnosis at the age of 16, the doctor played it down and told him: “You have nothing to worry about.” Only later did he discover it could be fatal and was transmissible, which “cast a shadow over my life,” he said.

He explained: “I’ve never had children of my own, I have stepchildren because I’m afraid to pass it on to anyone and I get close to people but I’m afraid to get too close. I always thought I would die in my thirties because that’s how old my brothers were. I didn’t think I would live to be as old as I am.”

He said that when he was young, there was a stigma surrounding his brothers’ HIV virus due to ignorance about the virus and the contaminated blood scandal. Marsh said he “went a little off the rails” as he struggled with his brothers’ illness and still battles depression on a daily basis.

“I just can’t believe it,” he said. “You put your trust in them (the authorities) and you think they have the best care for you. But whether they want to know (about the risk of contaminated blood) and still want to give it to us, I don’t know, it seems like someone has to be held responsible. I know the Post Office (miscarriage of justice scandal) was really bad, but it’s only a small part of what happened to us.

Marsh, whose father died last year, said he hoped the inquiry report would bring him some peace of mind, but added: “I still don’t think it will bring closure, but it will provide answers.

“It has devastated our family. I don’t think my mother really got over the grief for Kelvin when she passed away. My father had to live with the knowledge that my brothers died from contaminated blood and that his wife died that same year, and he never saw the justice we are all fighting for. That’s why I still want to be here, so I can see it for our family.”