To mark the opening of a long-awaited public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal, HuffPost UK has spoken to victims of the disaster.

Here we document the devastating and continuing impact on their lives of a health disaster the government has admitted should never have happened.

Their heartbreaking stories reveal the suffering of those whose lives were forever changed by killer viruses lurking within blood and blood products used by the NHS to treat patients in the 1970s and 1980s.

‘I lost two husbands to contaminated blood – now I’m losing my home’

People often say that lightning never strikes twice, but widow Liz Hooper suffered the torment of losing two husbands to contaminated blood products given to them by the NHS as a lifesaving treatment.

To compound Liz’s grief, she is now losing her house, as financial difficulties since the death of her husband Paul means she is being forced to sell the cottage they bought as their “forever home.”

Liz, 53, who lives in Warwickshire, told HuffPost UK: “I don’t really want their blood money and for me personally, this is not about compensation.

“No amount of money can ever compensate me for what I have lost. What I want is for them to stand up and acknowledge that they have screwed up.

“People have blood treatment and blood transfusions on the NHS in good faith. They don’t expect to be left with a death sentence.”

The financial hardship suffered by victims of the blood scandal and their families is just one of the pressing issues that needs to be urgently addressed, it was heard at the public inquiry opening hearings.

‘I tried to kill myself twice as I didn’t know what was wrong with me’

A transfusion with contaminated blood while pregnant left mum Sheila Thubron with hepatitis C, which went undiagnosed for 18 years.

Feeling utterly exhausted, depressed and anxious, Sheila reached rock bottom and tried to end her own life by taking an overdose on two separate occasions.

“I was tired out and did not know what was wrong with me and just did not want to be here anymore” recalled the 64-year-old mum-of-four who lives in Gateshead, near Newcastle.

Calls were made for everyone who had a blood transfusion or blood products before September 1991 to be tested for hepatitis C to find other victims who may not yet know they are infected, at the inquiry on Wednesday.

The numbers of as yet unknown victims of the blood disaster could stretch into the tens of thousands.

‘I lost both parents within eight days of each other, I was nine-years-old’

As a young girl of only nine-years-old, Lauren Palmer faced the unimaginable tragedy of both her parents dying within eight days of each other.

Although she was too young to know it at the time, the 34-year-old’s parents were both victims of the contaminated blood scandal. 

Her father had been infected with HIV and hepatitis C by blood products used to treat haemophilia and then unwittingly infected her mother. 

“I’ve dealt with everything that happened years ago but now it’s a case of getting closure and finding the truth for my parents and everyone else who has died,” she told HuffPost UK. “I think it’s just really important that we uncover exactly what happened and why it happened.”

Many children of infected blood victims killed by the blood and blood products they received were among the hundreds at the public inquiry preliminary hearings. They are fighting for justice on behalf of their parents.

‘I went to 70 friends’ funerals in one year’

Most people would count themselves unlucky if they suffered the anguish of attending a handful of funerals in their lifetime.

But Suresh Vaghela endured going to 70 funerals in just one year of friends who died as a result of contaminated blood products.

Suresh, a haemophiliac who lives in Leicester, says he feels like he is living with a ticking time bomb himself as he has HIV, Hepatitis C and was exposed to CJD due to the infected blood given to him as a treatment meant to keep him alive.

“Stigma is the worst part of the whole thing,” he told HuffPost UK, saying it is worse in the Asian community. “If you have epilepsy or heart disease, you can talk openly about it. But as soon as you mentioned HIV, it would clear a room.”

People who have lived with HIV contracted from contaminated blood told the inquiry they had been effectively silenced for decades due to to stigma that was in part a result of the government’s Aids advertising campaigns in the 1980s. 

‘I had a mental breakdown after my dad’s death from infected blood’

Louisa Paintin’s dad Fred was once described as “miracle boy”, after he survived a revolutionary procedure of having a blood transfusion while hooked to a live donor.

It made it even more painfully ironic for his family that another groundbreaking treatment for his haemophilia some years later actually led to his death – and was an ordeal that triggered a complete breakdown for daughter Louisa.

“All that I have been through stems from losing my dad in such a horrific way and then finding out the institutions you are supposed to trust, like the government and the medical profession, have let you down,” she said.

The public inquiry has been called on to explore allegations of a “cover-up” over the disaster.

‘I lost my husband and my children lost their dad – and it was all avoidable’

Widow Tracey Loder wants the infected blood inquiry to bring closure after years of struggle and grief.

Every day, the 50-year-old is struck with reminders of everything she lost when her husband Charlie was taken away from her as a result of being infected with contaminated blood.

“I feel anger that I lost my husband and that my children were robbed of their dad,” she told HuffPost UK.

She is one of thousands who are hoping the public inquiry will finally uncover how this appalling disaster happened and who was responsible, to at last deliver justice for the dead and their families.