Justine Gordon-Smith tells in today’s Daily Record how she watched her world fall apart after her dad was a victim of the UK’s biggest medical scandal.
Along with thousands of others her father Peter contracted hepatitis C after being given an infected blood donation.
It is estimated that about 3000 people in Scotland were given infected blood in the 70s and 80s. Many, like Peter, were being treated for haemophilia.
Hundreds have now died. The trauma of being infected by the deadly virus led Peter to attempt to take his own life on multiple occasions, leaving the family on “24-hour suicide watch”.
Now they feel like their family’s suffering is being ignored. A series of inquiries led to a promise from UK and Scottish governments that all the families affected would get justice.
But now they claim a redress scheme is letting families down. Instead of a swift, pain-free process, families have been told that the mental trauma of witnessing suicide attempts will not have any bearing on their compensation.
Those in charge of the redress scheme say such a move would encourage others to try and take their lives. Justine and others claim this is a travesty of justice – and fails to take into account the suffering families have endured.
Justine’s story is a harrowing one and is echoed by many other families caught up in this tragic scandal. It’s time for the scheme to take a compassionate view.
They must make sure that the mental anguish suffered by victims and their families is recognised – and properly compensated.
BULLYING and violence in Scotland’s schools is at crisis point.
There have been widespread reports of growing attacks on teachers.
While the Daily Record’s Our Kids..Our Future campaign has highlighted the growing trend of violent attacks on kids being filmed for social media “likes”.
Today we report how one seven-year-old boy had a rope tied around his neck during a bullying ordeal at his school.
The story is distressing to read but we make no apology for publishing the details of this lad’s ordeal.
We hope it will shock those in charge of Scotland’s schools into action. But the problem is wider that just one case. Teachers need to be empowered to take swift and proportionate action to tackle the violence they face on a daily basis.
That includes expulsions and possible criminal action.
We often hear talk about schools having a “zero tolerance” policy towards classroom violence..
It’s time we started actually adopting that approach in our schools rather that just trotting the phrase out as a lame platitude.
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