Kathleen ‘Kitty’ Stewart died at home in Camden on Sunday (February 16) after being diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer three weeks ago.
Kitty worked for Camden Council’s Meals on Wheels service and supported older people for many years while living with her own tragedy.
Both her husband Angus and son Angus Junior suffered from haemophilia, a blood clotting disorder, and died as a result of receiving treatments contaminated with HIV and Hepatis C at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.
Her husband died in 2002 aged 63 and her son in December 2013, aged just 47. Both died of cancer.
Kathleen Stewart with husband Angus, who died in 2002 after being given contaminated blood at the Royal Free Hospital 20 years earlier (Image: Mark Stewart)
Her only surviving son, Mark, who was born with the hereditary blood clotting disorder von Willebrand’s disease, was also infected with contaminated blood and now has leukaemia, and was with her when she died.
He told the Ham&High: “I’m a bit shocked, she was only diagnosed three weeks ago. She wasn’t in any pain.”
The infected blood scandal was one of the worst in NHS history. More than 30,000 people in the UK – mostly haemophiliacs or those given blood transfusions – were given blood products contaminated with HIV, hepatitis C and/or hepatitis B in the 1970s and 1980s. More than 3,000 have since died.
Following an inquiry which began in 2018, Kathleen was entitled to compensation.
Mark said the Government had told his mother she was entitled to more than £500,000 and to wait until they contacted her to fill in forms, but said no contact was made.
“Her claim has died with her, saving the Government hundreds of thousands of pounds,” he said. “The Government has won.”
He said that like other widows, his mother received an interim payment of £100,000 from his father’s estate. The money must be paid back but he does not know when.
Mark himself is yet to receive compensation for being both infected and his family being affected, and described the system as “a pecking order”.
He says that although £11 billion has been set aside, more people will die before they are compensated.
“It’s very clever how the Government sets this up, they don’t miss a trick,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust said: “We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to Mark and his family following the death of Mrs Stewart.
“To all of the families affected by the errors identified by the Infected Blood Inquiry, we continue to share our sincere apologies.
“We recognise that receiving infected blood products at the Royal Free Hospital in the 1970s and 1980s had a huge impact on the lives of patients and their families, which continues to be felt today.”
A Government spokesperson said: “Any death of someone affected by the Infected Blood Scandal is a tragedy.
“While no amount of compensation will make up for the suffering people have endured, we have paid over a billion pounds in interim payments to provide advance compensation to many of those impacted.
“Furthermore, the budget identified £11.8 billion worth of funding for victims of infected blood to address the scale of this injustice.”
