#Health

In 1993 when Jason Evans was just four years old his father died from HIV and Hepatitis C.  Jason’s father was one of thousands of people who were infected by contaminated blood in the 1970s and 80s after being treated for haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.   The former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, described the scandal as “a failure of the British state”.  Last year, the government announced it would pay £400 million compensation to victims of the UK’s blood contamination scandal. Jason Evans is the founder and director of the campaign group, Factor 8. He told Tortoise, “the evidence is so damning and the need is so urgent.”  Hepatitis C is a virus which predominantly causes damage to the liver. Left untreated, it can result in liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other conditions. It can often take decades for the severe symptoms of Hepatitis C to become apparent. The virus can lurk in the liver for a long time slowly doing damage. Without treatment HIV will destroy a person’s immune system. Once it has deteriorated to a certain level, people are then classed as having Aids. About 30,000 people are believed to have been infected, either through factor 8 blood products or through blood transfusions.  “Factor concentrates”  are a pharmaceutical product that increasingly began to be used to treat bleeding disorders. The factor concentrates exposed a person to the blood plasma of tens of thousands of people in one shot.  And the sources of plasma that the pharmaceutical companies were using at the time were questionable. Jason told Tortoise, “they were collecting plasma from the prisons in America” and “they were buying in plasma” from the developing world.   Paying for plasma has always been something the NHS is against. “You give people a motivation to lie about their lifestyle and their health status”. But a shortage of factor concentrate produced in the UK meant it was imported.   Previously, people had been treated with cryoprecipitate which is similar to a blood transfusion where a person received one unit from one volunteer donor on the NHS.  For decades, calls for a public inquiry to examine what happened were refused. Margaret Thatcher denied an investigation in the 1980s, as did every subsequent government. When new evidence emerged in 2017, Theresa May announced an inquiry would take place.  The inquiry’s second interim report has now been published, with the third and final part expected later this year.  This episode was written and mixed by Imy Harper.

In 1993 when Jason Evans was just four years old his father died from HIV and Hepatitis C.  Jason’s father was one of thousands of people who were infected by contaminated blood in the 1970s and 80s after being treated for haemophilia and other bleeding disorders.   The former Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, described the scandal as “a failure of the British state”.  Last year, the government announced it would pay £400 million compensation to victims of the UK’s blood contamination scandal. Jason Evans is the founder and director of the campaign group, Factor 8. He told Tortoise, “the evidence is so damning and the need is so urgent.”  Hepatitis C is a virus which predominantly causes damage to the liver. Left untreated, it can result in liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other conditions. It can often take decades for the severe symptoms of Hepatitis C to become apparent. The virus can lurk in the liver for a long time slowly doing damage. Without treatment HIV will destroy a person’s immune system. Once it has deteriorated to a certain level, people are then classed as having Aids. About 30,000 people are believed to have been infected, either through factor 8 blood products or through blood transfusions.  “Factor concentrates”  are a pharmaceutical product that increasingly began to be used to treat bleeding disorders. The factor concentrates exposed a person to the blood plasma of tens of thousands of people in one shot.  And the sources of plasma that the pharmaceutical companies were using at the time were questionable. Jason told Tortoise, “they were collecting plasma from the prisons in America” and “they were buying in plasma” from the developing world.   Paying for plasma has always been something the NHS is against. “You give people a motivation to lie about their lifestyle and their health status”. But a shortage of factor concentrate produced in the UK meant it was imported.   Previously, people had been treated with cryoprecipitate which is similar to a blood transfusion where a person received one unit from one volunteer donor on the NHS.  For decades, calls for a public inquiry to examine what happened were refused. Margaret Thatcher denied an investigation in the 1980s, as did every subsequent government. When new evidence emerged in 2017, Theresa May announced an inquiry would take place.  The inquiry’s second interim report has now been published, with the third and final part expected later this year.  This episode was written and mixed by Imy Harper.

We all feel glum – but the bestselling author and comedian Ruby Wax says there’s plenty of news to be positive about…. Our daily digital ThinkIns are exclusively for Tortoise members and their guests.Try Tortoise free for four weeks to unlock your complimentary tickets to all our digital ThinkIns.If you’re already a member and looking for your ThinkIn access code you can find it in the My Tortoise > My Membership section of the app next to ‘ThinkIn access code’.We’d love you to join us.How can we take the wheel from our overworked, over-stressed and over critical minds and swerve ourselves onto a happier highway? Treat yourself to an hour listening to Ruby Wax, bestselling author, comedian and leading mental health campaigner. In characteristically whip smart and sardonic style, Ruby will hold forth on the future of humanity and our planet. It’ll be a treat. Her new book, And Now for the Good News…To The Future, is out on 17th September. Editor: Merope Mills, Editor and Partner, TortoiseBuy the book hereAbout RubyRuby Wax is a successful comedian, TV writer and performer of over 25 years. Ruby additionally holds a Masters’ degree in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy from Oxford University and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for her services to mental health. She is the author of books Sane New World and A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled and has toured all over the world with the accompanying one-woman shows. Both books have reached the number one spot on the Sunday Times bestsellers list and a third book, How to Be Human: The Manual was also a major bestseller. In March 2017 she launched Frazzled café in partnership with Marks & Spencer and has been running daily sessions online at Frazzled.org during the coronavirus lockdown. Her memoir, How do You Want Me? was published with a new introduction in April 2020. To date, Ruby has sold over one million copies of her books worldwide.How does a digital ThinkIn work?A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event. Digital ThinkIns are new to Tortoise. Now that our newsroom has closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we feel it’s more important than ever that we ‘get together’ to talk about the world and what’s going on.The link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world. Members can enter their unique members’ access code to book tickets. Find yours in My Tortoise > My Membership in the Tortoise app.If you have any questions or get stuck, please read our FAQs, or get in touch with us at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.comRead our ThinkIn code of conduct here.What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.

Stephanie Yeboah tells it like is, on body positivity, intersectionality, mental health and more. Our daily digital ThinkIns are exclusively for Tortoise members and their guests.Try Tortoise free for four weeks to unlock your complimentary tickets to all our digital ThinkIns.If you’re already a member and looking for your ThinkIn access code you can find it in the My Tortoise > My Membership section of the app next to ‘ThinkIn access code’.We’d love you to join us.Thirty-one-year-old plus-size blogger Stephanie Yeboah has experienced racism and fatphobia throughout her life. Her first book, Fattily Ever After, is the story of her journey towards self-acceptance. Join us – and probably a fair few of Stephanie’s 180,000 Instagram followers – to listen to Stephanie explain the history of the black ‘body positivity’ movement, and share her experiences of fetishisation, online dating, fast fashion and loneliness. Stephanie tells it like it is. This ThinkIn is must-attend for anybody who has struggled to find self-worth (or even just fashionable clothes that fit and feel good) in a world full of discrimination and judgement.Editor: Liz Moseley, Editor and Partner, TortoiseBuy the book hereAbout StephanieStephanie Yeboah has been a part of the fat acceptance/body positive community since 2014. Since then, she has written many pieces on her blog, on social media platforms and in external publications on topics such as intersectionality in the body positivity movement, standards of beauty within the movement and self-love. She’s spoken at the Women of the World Festival, Oxford University, Africa Utopia, the Youth Select Committee, the London College of Fashion diversity panel and many others. How does a digital ThinkIn work?A digital ThinkIn is like a video conference, hosted by a Tortoise editor, that takes place at the advertised time of the event. Digital ThinkIns are new to Tortoise. Now that our newsroom has closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, we feel it’s more important than ever that we ‘get together’ to talk about the world and what’s going on.The link to join the conversation will be emailed to you after you have registered for your ticket to attend. When you click the link, you enter the digital ThinkIn and can join a live conversation from wherever you are in the world. Doors open at 6:25pm for a welcome and briefing. Come early to get settled, meet the team and chat to other members. ThinkIn starts at 6:30pm. Members can enter their unique members’ access code to book tickets. Find yours in My Tortoise > My Membership in the Tortoise app.If you have any questions or get stuck, please read our FAQs, or get in touch with us at memberhelp@tortoisemedia.comRead our ThinkIn code of conduct here.What is a Tortoise ThinkIn?A ThinkIn is not another panel discussion. It is a forum for civilised disagreement. It is a place where everyone has a seat at the (virtual) table. It’s where we get to hear what you think, drawn from your experience, energy and expertise. It is the heart of what we do at Tortoise.