A HAEMOPHILIAC from Warrington who has relentlessly campaigned to get compensation for people infected with blood diseases by the NHS has met with lords who wrote a report slamming the Government.

Grappenhall resident Mike Kenwright was infected with Hepatitis when the Government used to buy blood products from America.

Those products, used to treat his haemophilia, were from donors at prisons and drug addicts who were paid for their contributions.

Thousands of people were infected with HIV and Hepatitis during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Mr Kenwright went to London last week with other members of the Manor House Group, an action group, to meet Lord Peter Archer, Dr Norman Jones of St Thomas’ Hospital in London and Judith Willetts, chief executive of the British Society for Immunology.

The meeting followed the publication of Lord Archer’s report, which recommended that the Government apologise and pay compensation to the victims, many of whom now face the possibility that they were also infected with vCJD, or Mad Cow Disease.

In its response the Government agreed to pay compensation to those with HIV, but not Hepatitis for five years.

The decision angered the haemophiliac community, who have repeatedly tried to meet with health minister Andy Burnham.

“The meeting ended on a humorous note with the fact that once again the Government had given another £39 billion to bail out banks just 12 hours before the meeting with Lord Archer while they are happy to leave the victims of this disaster to continue in a life of pain and financial problems as a result of NHS treatment,” said Mr Kenwright.

“It is felt throughout the haemophilia population and certain MPs that this Government has firstly created a division between two groups, even though both are experiencing growing losses as a result of these viruses.

“It is also strongly felt that the Government’s refusal to offer any financial help to one group, and increasing the annual payment to another, is nothing but a clear case of discrimination by the Department of Health and the Government.”