A VICTIM of the contaminated blood scandal said he has been robbed of 20 years of his life – after the government announced an inquiry into the issue.

Dad-of-three David Fielding, from Morris Green, contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion he received as treatment for haemophilia in 1990.

He received a life-saving liver transplant in 1998 and no longer has hepatitis C or suffers from haemophilia.

But he said the ‘second chance’ at life he was handed has been lost in the years he has spent fighting for justice for himself and other victims.

Mr Fielding said: “I have been given this this second chance of life, this gift of life and I feel liked I have wasted this gift having to campaign for 18 years for justice for me and the rest of the victims.

“I shouldn’t have had to go through all this; going to London, going to see ministers from the Department of Health, sitting in debates, getting our hopes built up and getting knocked down.

“You have a couple of months of upset and then you go again. It’s been 18 years of this.”

But he added that he felt he had to carry on fighting for justice for victims including his brother Brian, a haemophiliac who contracted HIV through a transfusion and died in 1990.

Mr Fielding, aged 61, said: “This is really sad when I say this, but my brother never told any of his family that he was HIV-positive. I knew because I would pick little things up, like having to wear gloves when injecting him. He didn’t trust his own family, or he was scared to lose his own family because of the stigma.

“They were sad days in 80s and 90s , there was so much stigma, people went through horrendous things - they had their windows smashed or red crosses painted on their door, it's really sad.”

“It’s 26 years since he died and I don’t think I have been to his grave ten times, I just find it so hard walking down there. He must have been going through mental torture.”

Mr Fielding, no longer has haemophilia due to his liver transplant and has naturally ‘shed’ hepatitis C virus.

But he said he has been physically and emotionally damaged by receiving tainted blood and the decades of battling for the truth.

He added: “We want proper compensation for what we have gone through, what we have suffered.

“It’s about dignity as well; a lot of people have gone to their graves, including my brother, with no sense of justice.”

He continued: “There’s just been so many awful things that have happened over the years. It’s just not normal to attend the number of funerals we have been to .”

Mr Fielding said that nothing could make up for what he and other victims has been through, but believed a sum of around £300,000 compensation would be ‘achievable’.

He said: “I don’t think any amount of money will compensate for what’s been done to us, but it’s really about accountability and some form of acknowledgement this should never have happened to us and a proper, meaningful ‘sorry’.

“Doctors need to say they are sorry. For those that knew what they knew they should come out and say ‘we are sorry’ for what happened. And hopefully they are brought to the inquiry.

“I would settle for a decent compensation package if it was to come forward, but I was told years ago that we would need a proper inquiry with no stone left unturned before we get proper compensation.”

He added: “The money would be great if I could live for another 20 years, I would then feel compensated.”

Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday told the cabinet she and health secretary Jeremy Hunt had decided a probe was needed.

Details of the UK-wide investigation have yet to be finalised, and consultations are set to take place with those affected to establish the best way to proceed.

The announcement of the inquiry came just two days after six party leaders in the Commons – including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Democratic Unionists’ Nigel Dodds – signed a joint letter calling for it.