‘I kept wondering how I could possibly have caught it’
Paul Eatwell(Image: Family Handout/PA Wire)
A granddad from Blackburn was left in disbelief after routine blood tests revealed he had a potentially fatal disease.
Paul Eatwell, 65, is one of the more than 100,000 people who have been treated for hepatitis C after he tested positive for the virus. Routine liver function tests after switching GP practices flagged an abnormality, prompting his new doctor to order a hepatitis C test that detected it.
Paul said: “They repeated blood tests and included hepatitis C screening. I remember thinking, ‘Go ahead – I can’t imagine how I could possibly have hepatitis C, but if you’re checking everything, then check everything.
“A few days later, my GP phoned to tell me I’d tested positive for hepatitis C. My first reaction was disbelief. I remember saying, ‘Are you sure? Surely there’s been some mistake’.
“I didn’t feel ill. I kept wondering how I could possibly have caught it? When might it have happened? Could I have passed it on to someone else? Had someone passed it on to me?’
“The support from the specialist team made a huge difference. They answered every question, reassured me, helped me understand the possible risk factors and when I might have been infected, and encouraged me not to dwell on guilt.”
It was never clear how and where Paul contracted hepatitis, although risk factors were identified including surgery in South Africa decades ago.
Paul said: “Their message was simple: don’t spend your time worrying about how you got it – focus on getting rid of it.
“If you think you may be at risk, why wouldn’t you have the test? It gives you peace of mind.
“Treatment today isn’t life-changing in the way people might imagine. It’s no longer chemotherapy or lengthy hospital treatment – it’s one tablet a day for 12 weeks and a few blood tests.
“The alternative is to ignore it, potentially develop serious liver disease, or unknowingly pass the virus on to someone else.”
Once a life-limiting diagnosis, hepatitis C is now a curable condition and effective treatment is estimated to reduce the number of people needing liver transplants by 80% over the next decade, while cutting cases of liver cancer and cirrhosis.
The NHS is now urging those at greater risk of having undiagnosed hepatitis C – including those who have moved to England from certain Eastern European countries, those who have had a tattoo abroad, or those who use or have previously used drugs – to order a free and confidential home-testing kit online to help rule the virus out.
Adults born in Ukraine, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Albania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechia or Slovakia are particularly urged to test, as many could have been potentially infected through medical or dental procedures before 1991, when modern sterilisation standards were introduced.
The NHS has ramped up testing in the last five years, launching a first-of-its kind programme to test patients having a blood test in many A&Es, which has found 1,900 previously undiagnosed cases since 2022 – alongside asking all new patients registering at GP practices if they had a blood transfusion before 1996 to find any undiagnosed patients affected by the contaminated blood scandal.
The treatment drive offering curative treatment to over 100,000 people has been made possible by a landmark deal struck by the NHS in 2019 with pharmaceutical companies Gilead Sciences, MSD and AbbVie, bringing cutting-edge cures to patients at a huge scale.
The free NHS home testing portal at hepctest.nhs.uk offers a confidential route to test without needing to speak to a GP. Running for over three years, it is designed to reach people not already in contact with drug and alcohol services, sexual health services or A&E – including those who may have been exposed to contaminated blood and do not wish to disclose that history to their doctor.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Yvette Cooper MP, said: “When I was first appointed as a health minister in 1999, thousands of people were being diagnosed with hepatitis C each year, and the infection was contributing to hundreds of deaths.
“Today, thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our NHS, public health teams and partners, it is curable in the vast majority of cases, and we are leading the world in wiping out this disease for good.
“This is exactly the kind of preventative, forward-looking healthcare that we want the NHS to deliver across the board – catching illness earlier, easing pressure on hospitals, and giving people the chance to live longer, healthier lives.”
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