Darts legend reveals how infected blood scandal almost killed him: ‘Doctors told me I had six months to live’

Former world darts champion Tony David has revealed how he was given just six months to live after receiving blood plasma contaminated with hepatitis C.

David, 56, won the WDF World Championship in 2002 but seven years later he was near death from stage 4 liver disease.

He was told the cause of his illness was blood plasma infected with hepatitis C that he had received as a child in Queensland.

‘I had collapsed. The doctors basically told me I had about six months to live,” David, who suffers from hemophilia, told 9News.

He escaped death after undergoing a liver transplant, the first of three he needed to stay alive.

Australian legend David, 56, was told by doctors he had just six months to live

The 56-year-old, known as the Deadly Boomerang during his playing days, is one of thousands of Australians who contracted hepatitis C through donated blood between the 1970s and early 1990s.

Others are infected with the HIV virus.

David was told that he was not eligible for compensation for the infection, nor for the resulting health problems.

The Australian champion is now calling for action against the tainted blood scandal, with victims demanding a royal commission of inquiry as well as an apology and compensation from the federal government.

The calls come in the wake of the investigation into infected blood donations in Britain, with damning findings showing that the NHS knowingly exposed tens of thousands of patients to infections through diseased blood and blood products.

It also found that the NHS covered up the truth about the scandal.

He is now calling for an apology and compensation from the government for all victims

Last week it was announced that British victims will receive $19 billion in compensation, while a British patient needing a liver transplant is expected to receive somewhere between $2.7 and $3 million.

“What happened in Britain happened here,” David added.

“I know many who have died from this and I know what happened to me: they need a proper review in Australia.

‘I’m still alive to pay my bill. Yet so many are not with us and even more are suffering without supervision and without efforts to provide them with life-saving transplants.”

A 2004 Senate inquiry found the Australian Red Cross Blood Service estimated that between 3,500 and 8,000 Aussies were living with hepatitis C from blood transfusions, including 1,350 haemophiliacs.

Victims claim they never received the targeted financial assistance or formal national apology promoted following the investigation.