Lancashire woman says its a ‘magical’ relief to meet others struggling with hepatitis C after blood scandal

A Lancashire woman who was infected by contaminated blood products has spoken about the ‘magical’ relief of meeting two other women going through the same health struggles.

Nicola Leahey, from Chorley, had contracted hepatitis C following blood transfusions she had in 1975 and 1980.

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She had only found out about the infection after she took tests in 2009 after she felt ‘extremely tired’ throughout the day which led her to take an early retirement.

She told of how the exhaustion continued as she underwent treatment, detailing going from being an ‘active’ person to ‘being in bed for half the week in a black room’.

Ms Leahey joined the Infected Blood Inquiry where she met Sue Wathen , from Northamptonshire, and Joan Edgington, from Somerset, who had both been diagnosed with hepatitis C as well.

Both Ms Edgington and Ms Wathen had been infected with hep C in similar ways to Ms Leahey, after undergoing blood transfusions.

The three women told the PA news agency how unwell they had been in the years between infection and treatment, and in some instances during treatment and afterwards.

After bonding through the inquiry, the three are now part of a group that call themselves ‘blood friends’.

The group described meeting each other, and others infected and affected, as “wonderful”.

Ms Leahey said: “Because you are on your own when you’re diagnosed and then suddenly the whole world opens up to you, that actually you’re not the only one, and there’s hundreds, thousands of others out there.

“It’s just that support, it’s that knowledge that we can just speak to somebody and they know how we feel – the desperation.”

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There are eight women in total who have had hep C and have “stuck together” and keep in regular contact.

Ms Leahey said she lost purpose when she was struggling with treatment, but found it was renewed in the support group she discovered.

She said: “I just lost the purpose, why was I living. I was a burden to people, rather than the matriarch of the family, which I was known as.