My friend Su Gorman, who has died aged 68 of heart failure, was a campaigner for haemophiliac victims of Britain’s contaminated blood scandal. Her work with her husband, Steve Dymond, as part of the pressure group Tainted Blood, did much to bring about the infected blood inquiry, established in 2018 to explore why people in the UK were given infected blood and blood products.
In the 1970s and 80s, 4,689 British people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders became infected with hepatitis C (as Steve did) and/or HIV after being treated with contaminated blood products. Of those, more than 3,000 have since died.
Su was small, fierce, clever, angry and driven. She was also warm and funny, but many only saw the erudite, ferocious side. She had the most piercing blue eyes – beautiful in themselves, but terrifying when focused on the politicians and senior NHS staff she blamed for the scandal.
Born in London, she was the daughter of Betsy Cowling, a legal secretary, and Terence Gorman, an engineer for London Transport, and went to Mayfield comprehensive school in Putney. She met Steve at Exeter University, where they both studied Russian.
In the 80s they unofficially adopted Ken Johnson, a homeless 16-year-old. To their great pride he went on to become the youngest headteacher in Lewisham.
Steve was a mild haemophiliac, able to live a full life until infected with contaminated blood product. After contracting hepatitis C in the mid-80s – though it was not diagnosed until 1997 – he became lethargic, forgetful, distant and suffered a number of shocking bleeds.
Su gave up her job as a senior social worker to look after Steve and fight for justice. She was a walking encyclopedia of dates and documents that exposed terrible failings. Apart from seeking an admission that the policy of buying cheap, contaminated blood (largely from US prisons) had killed thousands of people in the UK, the fight was also for compensation. It left Su and Steve impecunious because they could no longer work.
I first met them in 2017, just after the then prime minister, Theresa May, announced a statutory public inquiry. We spent hours talking in a pub in Ramsgate in Kent, where they lived, as they explained the scandal’s myriad complexities. After the inquiry began in early 2018, Su appeared with Steve on radio and TV shows to talk about the impact of the scandal
In December 2018 Steve died of total organ failure, aged 62. Su continued to fight, regularly attending the inquiry despite increasing ill health and giving testimony that was blistering and heartbreaking. She moved to Dawlish in Devon, where she lived in a static caravan at Golden Sands holiday park, enjoying the natural beauty and being close to where Steve was buried.
Last year the government made an interim compensation payment of £100,000 to each of those who had been infected, and to bereaved partners. But Su died before publication of the final report and any decision had been made about the final compensation – a heroic campaigner, but ultimately another victim of this shameful scandal.
• This article was amended on 16 September 2023 to correct some personal details.
