Key facts
- A memorial has been installed at the Lord Mayor Treloar School and College in Hampshire, England.
- Boys at the school were experimented on and infected with HIV and hepatitis.
- Of 122 pupils with haemophilia who attended between 1970 and 1987, about 30 were still alive when the Infected Blood Public Inquiry published its report in 2024.
- The inquiry found children were treated as "objects for research" and experimented on without their knowledge by NHS clinicians.
- Survivors Adrian Goodyear, Gary Webster, Steve Nicholls, and Richard Warwick attended the unveiling.
- The memorial depicts two pupils embracing each other.
A memorial has been unveiled at the Lord Mayor Treloar School and College in Hampshire, England, to commemorate pupils who were knowingly infected with HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood transfusions and medical experiments. The Infected Blood Public Inquiry, which published its report in 2024, highlighted how "very few" of the 122 haemophiliac pupils who attended the school between 1970 and 1987 "escaped being infected".
The inquiry found that children were treated as "objects for research" and experimented on without their knowledge by NHS clinicians who were aware of the dangers. Of the 122 pupils, only about 30 were still alive when the report was published.
Survivors Richard Warwick, Adrian Goodyear, Steve Nicholls, and Gary Webster attended the unveiling of the memorial, which depicts two pupils embracing. Adrian Goodyear, 55, who was infected with hepatitis and HIV, recalled being told by a doctor in 1985 that he had two to three years to live, a diagnosis shared with five other boys.
Gary Webster, 61, who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C, stated the memorial is important "to remember what happened and to make sure it never happens again". Steve Nicholls, 59, described the memorial as representing "the comradeship and the bonds that were formed at the college at the time", noting that many of the boys became like brothers.
In his report, Sir Brian Langstaff described the events as the "worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS", stating it had "left long scars, not only in this Hampshire community but across the UK". Toby Riley-Smith KC, reading a statement on behalf of the trust, offered an apology for the suffering endured by former pupils and their loved ones.