About Jason Evans
My search for the truth began with my father
I was four years old when my father, Jonathan Evans, died in October 1993. He was thirty-one.
My dad had haemophilia and was given Factor VIII blood products, manufactured by a range of pharmaceutical companies, which infected him with HIV and hepatitis C. He developed AIDS and died from a combination of consequences arising from his infections, leaving behind his family and questions that would remain unanswered for decades.
Growing up, I learned that my father had been caught up in something unusual and terrible. What I did not understand was exactly what had happened and why.
As I grew older, those questions became impossible to ignore.
My father died when I was four. I spent the next thirty years uncovering why.
Searching for answers
In 2015, the Penrose Inquiry in Scotland published its long-awaited report into infected blood. After years of evidence and expectation, it made only one recommendation and was widely condemned by victims and campaigners as a whitewash.
For me, it was a turning point.
I began searching through government papers, historical records, medical documents and different archives around the country. What started as an attempt to understand my father’s death gradually became something much larger.
Documents relating to the infected blood scandal show repeated warnings, institutional failures and decisions that were never been properly explained to the people whose lives were destroyed. I began using Freedom of Information laws to obtain further evidence and catalogue the reference numbers of departmental files to understand which files ought to exist but had been hidden from public view and scrutiny. I worked with families, journalists, lawyers and parliamentarians to bring much of the evidence into public view.
Every document led to another question. Every answer revealed more of what had been concealed.
Founding Factor 8
In 2016, I began to establish Factor 8 as an independent campaign organisation for those infected and affected by Factor VIII and IX blood products which were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C.
The campaign was focused on securing a public inquiry (the truth) and compensation. It combined archival research, Freedom of Information requests, legal action, media investigations and direct political pressure.
In 2017, evidence I had pieced together and pitched secured the front page of the Daily Mail. I also featured in the BBC Panorama documentary Contaminated Blood: The Search for the Truth, where my legal action concerning my father’s death first became public.
Very quickly, my personal litigation case became a group legal action against the Government under the name Jason Evans & Others.
On 11 July 2017, just one week after the group litigation in my name was lodged and the Daily Mail front page secured, and, after decades of campaigning by people across the infected blood community, Prime Minister Theresa May announced a UK-wide public inquiry. Factor 8 and I were subsequently appointed as Core Participants in the Infected Blood Inquiry.
The search that had begun with my father had become part of a national reckoning.
Evidence, accountability and compensation
Over the following years, I continued investigating the scandal, submitting evidence to the Inquiry and working to ensure that the truth and experiences of victims and bereaved families were not overlooked.
My research contributed to major stories across the British and international media. It exposed missing government files, failures to preserve evidence, the influence of pharmaceutical companies, unethical research involving patients and attempts to withhold information about the risks of contaminated treatments.
In June 2021, I gave oral evidence to the Infected Blood Inquiry. I spoke about my father, the impact of his death and the evidence I had uncovered during the campaign.
Alongside the campaign for truth and accountability, I proposed and led Factor 8’s campaign for a compensation framework exercise. This included bringing families together, making detailed submissions, meeting ministers and pressing the Government to begin preparing compensation before the Inquiry had completed its work.
Eventually, the government agreed to the proposal and appointed Sir Robert Francis KC to carry out a compensation framework study.
The Infected Blood Inquiry published its final report in May 2024. It concluded that infections and deaths could largely have been avoided and that the truth had been concealed for decades. The report marked the end of the Inquiry, but not the consequences of the scandal.
In Cold Blood
My investigation and the story of my father were followed in the ITV Exposure documentary In Cold Blood.
Broadcast in 2020, the film examined how people with haemophilia were infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses through contaminated Factor VIII, and followed my efforts to uncover evidence and establish what had happened.
In 2021, In Cold Blood won the International Emmy Award for News and Current Affairs. It was also recognised by the Royal Television Society, the Grierson Awards, the Broadcast Awards and the Amnesty International Media Awards.
Recognition
In 2023, I was named Campaigner of the Year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation for my work on infected blood.
In October 2024, I received a Pride of Britain Special Recognition Award. The award recognised the years of investigation and campaigning that helped secure the Infected Blood Inquiry and the establishment of a compensation scheme.
These honours belong within a much larger story, involving thousands of infected and affected people, bereaved families and campaigners who refused to allow what happened to be forgotten.
A new chapter
In January 2025, after almost a decade of daily campaign work, I stood down as Director of Factor 8 and stepped away from active campaigning.
I now work as a Consultant with the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, contributing the experience and understanding I gained through my research and the campaign to the delivery of compensation for infected and affected people.
It is a different role, but it grew from the same conviction that the people whose lives were devastated by this scandal deserve to be treated with humanity, fairness and respect.
The views expressed on this website are my own and do not represent the Infected Blood Compensation Authority.
A Son Never Forgets
My book, A Son Never Forgets: Exposing the Infected Blood Scandal, tells my story.
It is the story of a son trying to understand his father’s death, of documents hidden and warnings ignored, and of how a personal search for answers grew into a campaign that reached Parliament, the courts and the heart of government.
But it is also a story about grief, memory, family and identity. It is about the difference between the truths recorded in official documents and the truths we carry within us.
A Son Never Forgets is published by Biteback Publishing on 26 November 2026.
Biography
Jason Evans is the author of A Son Never Forgets: Exposing the Infected Blood Scandal and the founder and former director of Factor 8.
After losing his father, Jonathan, when he was four years old, Jason spent years investigating how people with haemophilia had been infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses through contaminated NHS blood products. His research, campaigning and legal action helped bring renewed national attention to the scandal and contributed to the establishment of the UK Infected Blood Inquiry.
Jason gave evidence to the Inquiry in 2021 and led Factor 8’s campaign for an infected blood compensation framework. His work has featured extensively across television, radio and the national press and was followed in the International Emmy-winning ITV documentary In Cold Blood.
He was named Campaigner of the Year by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation in 2023 and received a Pride of Britain Special Recognition Award in 2024.
Since January 2025, Jason has worked as a Consultant with the Infected Blood Compensation Authority. He lives in Warwickshire with his wife and daughter.