A FORMER haemophiliac is to give evidence to a formal inquiry seeking to discover why thousands of people given blood in the 1970s and 1980s were infected with hepatitis C or HIV.

David Fielding was given the tainted blood products in NHS transfusions and contracted hepatitis C, which destroyed his liver and led to a transplant.

His brother, Brian, also a haemophiliac, contracted AIDS by the same process and died in 1990.

Mr Fielding, aged 51, of Darley Avenue, Farnworth, has now been called to give evidence at the inquiry on April 18.

The father-of-three said: "I'm the last person to give evidence on the first day of the inquiry, but I only have 20 minutes to tell my side of the story so I need to make sure it's really powerful.

"This is something I have waited a long time to do because haemophiliacs are dying and they are waiting to be told the truth.

"There are a lot of families who haven't been able to move on because the hurt is so bad. It's awful watching friends and loved ones die."

After being treated with contaminated blood during the 1970s and 1980s, 4,670 people in the UK were diagnosed with hepatitis C and 1,243 were told they had HIV.

Just 2,552 patients with hepatitis C and 361 with HIV are still alive today.

In 1993, Mr Fielding was told he had hepatitis C and by 1995 his liver was riddled with cirrhosis.

Just hours away from death, he was given a life-saving transplant, which has not only cured him of his liver disease, but also his haemophilia.

The independent inquiry, which was launched last month, is being chaired by Lord Archer of Sandwell, and will investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and its consequences.

Also on the inquiry panel are Lord Tunberg, past president of the Royal College of Physicians; Dr Judith Willets, chief executive officer of the British Society for Immunology and Dr Norman Jones, a consultant physician at a London hospital.