The ‘blood friends’ swap stories and medical advice to help one another feel unburdened by their experiences

Victims of the infected blood inquiry are joining forces to share stories and support.

Sue Wathen, Joan Edgington and Nicola Leahey were diagnosed with hepatitis C after struggling through years of unexplained symptoms that were dismissed by doctors.

Andy Evans was injecting his own clotting protein at three, and was 13 when he found it had given him HIV. Now he campaigns for fellow survivors – and the truth about the contamination scandal

• The children of the contaminated blood scandal | Today in Focus

Andy Evans was 13 when his mum took him for an unexpected drive in the countryside. “I thought: this is weird. Why are we here? We don’t do this,” he remembered. “We sat for a couple of minutes and then she turned to me with tears in her eyes. And she said: ‘Do you know what HIV is?’ And I said: ‘Well, I’ve heard of it … Isn’t it that disease that kills you?’ And she said: ‘Yep, that’s right. It’s been in the factor VIII and you’ve got it.’”

Factor VIII was the concentrated blood clotting protein he had been receiving for his haemophilia since being diagnosed as a baby. Touted as a wonder drug to stop internal bleeding, it was so easy to mix with water and inject with a syringe that Evans was able to administer it himself at home before his fourth birthday.

Christopher Marsh says he is determined to see the contaminated blood inquiry ‘to the end’

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

Marsh, 49, and his two brothers, Gary and Kelvin, were all infected in 1981 through imported blood products used to treat people with haemophilia. Last year he was told his hepatitis C was no longer dormant and, with his brothers having long since died as a result of being infected, he is determined to see the end of the infected blood inquiry, which will publish its final report on 20 May, and the official response.