Huge surge in demand for hepatitis C test

Charlotte Dickens (pictured) says she was 'astounded' that she and others were not tested for the disease once the risks became clear

Demonstrators pictured holding placards at a protest in London in July 2023

Maureen Arkley (pictured) died from liver cancer soon after being diagnosed with hepatitis C

The BBC has reported that 12,800 people in England have requested NHS home-testing kits in just over a week, compared with 2,300 in the entire month of April (file image) 

Ms Dickens, from Surrey, is one of the thousands who have recently made a request for a home-testing kit, having had a blood transfusion after suffering a haemorrhage during childbirth in 1980.

She told the BBC: 'I had no idea it [hepatitis C] could linger around and cause liver cancer. Why didn't we all get tested, what's the answer to that? It is hard to find an excuse.'

Ms Dickens said she felt she should speak up on the matter, as about 3,000 people are known to have died as a result of receiving infected blood products and many more who unknowingly contracted hepatitis C.

Maureen Arkley died from liver cancer soon after being diagnosed with hepatitis C.

Her daughter Victoria believes her mother was infected during transfusions 47 years earlier and is 'angry' that 'no one tested her'.

Mr Hunt told the Sunday Times he promised to 'sort' a fair and full settlement for the tens of thousands of victims during a meeting with campaigner Mike Dorricott in 2014.

Mr Hunt said the payout will be a 'thanks to Mike more than anyone else'.

He added: 'And it's one of the saddest things that he's not around to see it.'

The Chancellor told the paper that Mr Dorricott was 'so gentle, so decent'.

'I imagine after that meeting that Mike thought that he'd been fobbed off by yet another politician giving him the runaround,' he said, adding: 'But what Mike didn't know was that he really had made a huge impression on me.' 

Mr Hunt signalled his intent for a payout package ahead of an independent inquiry report tomorrow, with Rishi Sunak expected to respond formally.  

Former judge Sir Brian Langstaff will tomorrow deliver his final report, almost seven years after the inquiry was announced.

The PM is then likely to make a Commons statement, although government sources would not be drawn on whether he would issue a formal apology.

Mr Sunak has previously told Sir Brian's inquiry that victims of the scandal had suffered a 'litany of broken promises and dashed expectations'.

Victims of the infected blood scandal are set for a £10billion compensation package as Jeremy Hunt insisted the huge payout will honour a promise to a dying constituent

Mr Hunt said he promised to 'sort' a fair and full settlement for the tens of thousands of victims during a meeting with campaigner Mike Dorricott (pictured) in 2014

The Prime Minister is expected to address MPs at the close of an official inquiry into what has been condemned as the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history (pictured: undated NHS Blood and Transplant)

More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Some 4,000 people have already received interim payments of about £100,000. That came after a 32-year campaign by the Daily Mail which highlighted the plight of haemophiliacs who were given tainted blood products.

Many other countries have been affected by the same scandal. In the US, firms that supplied infected products have paid millions in out-of-court settlements.