Contaminated blood inquiry is announced.

Byline: By Paul James

A woman whose husband died after being treated with contaminated blood was last night hailing a victory after an independent inquiry into the treatment scandal was announced.

Carol Grayson could only watch as husband Peter Longstaff died from HIV and Hepatitis ( one of 1,757 haemophiliacs estimated to have fallen victim to contaminated NHS blood.

His death in 2005, at the age of 47, came 19 years after his brother Stephen, also a haemophiliac, died after being infected with HIV he contracted from blood collected in America.

The family, backed by The Journal's Bad Blood campaign, have fought for an official inquiry into what has been described as "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS".

Previous investigations have been branded "whitewashes" ( but yesterday Carol, of St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle, told of her relief that an independent inquiry will now be held.

The inquiry will be conducted by former Solicitor General, Labour peer Lord Archer of Sandwell, who will start collecting evidence next month.

Carol, 47, said: "We've been trying to get this inquiry for years and The Journal has been really influential. If it wasn't for that work I don't think we would be at this stage.

"Peter always knew he would die at an early age. We tried to be very positive and live life to the full, but in the later years it was terribly stressful to see him day after day in quite excruciating pain."

Haemophilia is a condition where one of the clotting proteins in the blood is either missing or present only at a very low level.

It is treated by injection of the missing clotting factor protein.

This can be replaced but Peter was infected by pooled plasma from many thousands of donors.

Former nurse Carol said the advances in treatment for haemophiliacs had been negated by the use of the contaminated blood in the lifesaving transfusions ( and that Peter and many others need not have died.

The brothers were both diagnosed with HIV in 1985 ( both having contracted the virus from blood used in their treatment.

Stephen died aged 20 in 1986, and Peter was diagnosed with Hepatitis C in 1994.

It later emerged he had tested positive several years before but had not been told by doctors. The blood with which Peter was treated came from donor centres in America where prisoners and addicts would sell it for money. Carol added: "If you don't tell the patient they have an infectious disease they become, unknown to them, a public health risk."

Peter died in April 2005. After his death the family learned he had also been exposed to vCJD from infected blood.

The Department of Health (DoH) said it had considered demands for a public inquiry "very carefully" but had decided it would not benefit those affected.

A DoH spokeswoman said: "We have great sympathy for those infected with Hepatitis C and HIV and have considered the call for a public inquiry very carefully. However, the Government of the day acted in good faith, relying on the technology available at the time and therefore we do not feel that a public inquiry would provide any real benefit to those affected."

But Carol added: "What we hope this will do is allow us to put all our evidence in that the Government has ignored. The Government line has always been that the benefits of treatment outweighed the risks ( but they never told the patients what the risks were. We believe it will show a very different timeline of events and could make a lot of people quite uncomfortable.

"It's important we learn from the mistakes that were made and that these don't happen again in the future."

The independent inquiry will be conducted by former Solicitor General, Labour peer Lord Archer of Sandwell.

The inquiry, announced by Lord Morris of Manchester, chairman of the Haemophilia Society, is entirely independent.

Lord Morris said 1,757 haemophiliacs, who were exposed to HIV and/or hepatitis C contaminated NHS blood and blood products, had died since being infected.

Of the 4,670 patients exposed to hepatitis C, 1,243 were also exposed to HIV.

Only 2,552 patients exposed to hepatitis C and just 361 with HIV are still alive.

Lord Archer will call on patients, bereaved dependants, former Health Ministers and "other eminent witnesses" to help the inquiry.

He will be joined by Lord Turnberg, immediate past president of the Royal College of Physicians as medical assessor, and by Dr Judith Willetts, chief executive officer of the British Society for Immunology.

Haemophilia Society chairman Roddy Morrison said: "All across the United Kingdom those infected and their families will rejoice that all the facts are finally to be brought out into the open."