A VICTIM of a contaminated blood scandal has welcomed the new Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham’s calls for a Hillsborough-style inquiry into the scandal.

Hundreds of deaths have been linked to the scandal in which haemophiliacs and others were infected with hepatitis C and HIV from blood products during the 1970s and 1980s.

David Fielding, from Farnworth, suffered from haemophilia and was infected with Hepatitis C after he received tainted blood in 1990. And Mr Fielding’s brother Brian died in 1990 after he contracted AIDS while also being treated for haemophilia with contaminated blood.

Last month in the House of Commons Mr Burnham, the former Labour health secretary, said victims were used as “guinea pigs” and subjected to “slurs and smears” via falsified medical records. Others had tests carried out without their knowledge or consent, with the results withheld “for decades in some cases” even when they revealed positive results.

Mr Burnham said he would pass his information to the police if the government did not launch a public inquiry before the summer recess. Mr Fielding, aged 61, said: “This is the first time someone has stood up and given a powerful speech on behalf of all those victims, alive or dead. The truth has to be told.”

BBC’s Panorama will look at the scandal tonight at 9pm in Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth.