A landscape designer whose brother was a victim of the infected blood scandal says she needs a “miracle” to get funding for a memorial garden at Chelsea Flower Show. During the 1970s, Simon Cummings was one of 6,000 people with haemophilia treated with contaminated clotting factors containing HIV and hepatitis viruses. He died in 1996 at the age of 38 after contracting HIV.
While the public inquiry, the results of which were published this year, was taking place, Simon’s sister Amanda Patton felt she “needed to do something that I could contribute”. She hopes to create a memorial garden at next year's Chelsea Flower Show, marking the deaths of the haemophiliacs who died. Amanda, who lives in Storrington, said: “One of the things I found incredibly frustrating is the general lack of awareness – more haemophiliacs have died from infected blood than people in 9/11.
The scale of it is just not understood by the vast majority, even though we have had all the publicity. I think this is because we don’t have a defining image – we don’t have the burning building, or the crowds being trampled, so all the public can take away is nameless victims of a nameless number. By calling it Simon’s garden, we can make it personal and engage the public with the story behind the garden.
“There is the huge potential that unless the findings of the inquiry are taken on board, this tragedy could happen again to another group of people. It’s deeper than creating a pretty spac.
