Colette Wintle is crippled by hepatitis C

A haemophiliac who says she was infected with hepatitis C from a contaminated blood product could miss out on thousands of pounds of compensation.

Colette Wintle, from Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire, was given the blood drug Factor 8 after a routine tonsil operation at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in 1976.

The 43-year-old former model, air hostess and nurse, has been left crippled by chronic hepatitis C.

Lawyers have until the end of this week to file a claim for compensation against the pharmaceutical companies accused of supplying the NHS with clotting agents contaminated with hepatitis C and HIV.

'Health compromised'

But Mrs Wintle has been told she cannot pursue compensation because Glasgow Royal Infirmary has lost her records.

She said: "I feel very angry my life, my health and my family's life has been so compromised."

Mrs Wintle added the claims for compensation had come about because the government had refused to open up a public inquiry into why more than 3,000 haemophiliacs were exposed to hepatitis viruses and HIV.

"I feel very angry that just because I was born with a congenital defect it does not mean that I should have been laid open to such experimentation by doctors who were looking after me."

Health minister Malcolm Chisholm has urged patients whose records have been lost or destroyed to contact his department immediately.