HIV widow wants contaminated blood apology from NHS

Haydn Lewis had been diagnosed with HIV too late to prevent him infecting his wife Gaynor

A Cardiff woman infected with HIV after her husband was treated for haemophilia wants an apology from the NHS, MPs have been told.

Gaynor Lewis's husband Haydn died in 2010 after he was given contaminated blood products.

MPs were discussing the scandal, which affected thousands of people between the 1970s and the early 1990s.

Tory MP Alistair Burt said Mrs Lewis wanted the matter resolved so her husband could "rest in peace".

'Terrible scandal'

Around 7,500 people were treated with NHS blood products now known to have been infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C, according to an all-party report published on Wednesday.

MPs debating the report on Thursday heard that no full-scale public inquiry had ever been held and several called for the families affected to be compensated.

Cardiff Central Liberal Democrat MP Jenny Willott - the Lewis family's local MP - said: "Entire families have been affected by this terrible scandal."

She added that Mr Lewis's brother had also died after being infected.

Many MPs are calling for an apology and compensation for families affected by contaminated blood

Mr Burt, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, said: "Haydn's wife wrote to a friend of mine and said, 'I would dearly like to see an end to the campaigning and put this issue to bed. There needs to be an apology.'

He said the letter continued: "I want to go to Haydn's grave and say once and for all it's sorted - then I will know that he's resting in peace."

Newport East Labour MP Jessica Morden raised the case of a boy treated for an ear condition when eight months old who died at the age of seven suffering from HIV and hepatitis C.

Ms Morden said a public apology was long overdue and it was time for a final settlement.

UK Health Minister Jane Ellison told MPs that "these events have already been repeatedly examined in a number of different ways".

But she acknowledged that there was scope to review the current support system, saying "the government must do right for those people on behalf of whom so many members have spoken today".