Hep C victim’s benefit fight

Alex Smith with MP Jim McMahon

A CHADDERTON man is unable to work and constantly feeling flu-like symptoms because NHS blood infected him with Hepatitis C.

Now Alex Smith (61) says the Government is kicking him while he’s down - by applying possible cuts to his funding.

Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon yesterday told Parliament the story of Alex, who was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1995. His condition was discovered when he began donating blood - and it was later revealed he had likely contracted the virus when receiving blood transfusions during treatment the same year.

Mr Smith was offered treatment and expected cure immediately, but continued to suffer lethargy and forgetfulness. He ssumed this was due to ageing - until in 2011 his doctor told him he still had Hepatitis C and again started immediate treatment. The Interferon should have made him feel better - but instead he increasingly felt much worse.

He now suffers chronic fatigue, and forgetfulness so severe that two years ago he had to leave his job as a cleaner when he started leaving open doors that should be locked.

Mr Smith receives £2,000 a year from the Skipton Fund, which supports people infected by NHS blood before September 1991.

But a Government consultation launched in January sets out plans to cut payments. Changes would see Mr Smith’s money cut as well as the loss of a £500 winter fuel allowance, support for prescriptions, a mobility grants and access to free debt and financial advice.

Mr Smith said: “It is terrible. I should be working full-time and earning good money instead of being on Employment and Support Allowance and relying on the small amount of extra money I’m eligible for. Now they’re trying to give me even less, it’s disgraceful. was as fit as a fiddle before all this. I was doing three jobs at one point and now I can’t hold down one.

“I feel let down. This was inflicted on me and has changed my life for the worse.”

In Ireland people similarly infected with Hepatitis C were awarded an average £750,000 each, while the Italian government was recently told to pay £7.7million to more than 350 victims and in Scotland those infected with HIV, or who developed advanced Hep C, are set to get £27,000 a year, up from £15,000.

Mr McMahon, speaking during yesterday’s House of Commons debate on the changes, said: “A £2,000 a year payment from a Government charity for one of the world’s wealthiest countries is nothing when we reflect on the damage state negligence has caused.

“We are penny pinching from those who can least afford it. The ex gratia payments like people like my constituent receive are derisory and quite frankly, insulting. This tragedy has claimed too many years from Alex and his family and they deserve better."

In an extra blow to the family, medical records show that Alex’s wife Brenda, who died in 2008 after suffering cancer, also had the infection and was never told.