Contaminated Blood: Revisiting Treloar's, the Hampshire school where dozens of pupils died
Special video report by ITV News Meridian's Rachel Hepworth.
Every story of infected blood is shocking.
But what happened to pupils at Treloar's School in Hampshire has been described as a tragedy within a tragedy.
The college in Alton was meant to be a haven for haemophiliac boys who might be at risk in the outside world.
But in the 1970s and 80s, the biggest danger was INSIDE the school grounds, as blood treatments, meant to improve their lives, began to infect them.
In total 122 boys contracted HIV or Hepatitis C, some of them, both.
Fewer than 20 survive.
Returning to the school chapel, they spoke of the trauma of losing classmates and being told they'd been infected with deadly diseases.
"The impact was a bomb. We were given two years to live - we were going to die, and most of us did, " says Ade Goodyear, 50, from Portsmouth, who was sent to the college at the age of 10.
A haemophiliac, he was one of those infected at the school between 1974 and 1987, after being given a drug contaminated with HIV and viral hepatitis.
Since then, at least 72 have died, while survivors have had to live with decades of ill-health, stigma and little or no support.
Ade Goodyear describes the shock of being told he was infected with HIV
WHAT IS HAEMOPHILIA?
It is a rare genetic condition in which the blood does not clot properly. It mostly affects men but is passed through the female line.
People with the condition produce lower amounts of the essential blood-clotting protein known as factor VIII and IX.
For boys like Ade, arriving at Treloars was a godsend. He had previously been bullied, his arm had been broken by a boy "who wanted to see what happened when you hit a haemophiliac."
He was used to seeing "home, hospital, a sofa and not much more" but at Treloars he made friends, was free to run around, play football and get an education.
Steve Nicholls, 54, agrees: "The bonds and the friendships that were formed here were more than the normal friends and relationships. We became like blood brothers and I think that's how we all consider ourselves"
Steve Nicholls and Gary Webster describe the bonds forged at Treloars
Steve, from Farnham, went to Treloars in 1976 when he was eight. He gave evidence at the beginning of the enquiry and describes how the arrival of Factor VIII initially transformed their lives for the better:
"Someone came along and said look guys, rather than you having to go to hospital and hold your arm out and be there overnight for a long transfusion, you're going to have a 60mil syringe that's going to take 10 minutes to give yourself and then you can go back out and play football, and basically, what nine or 10 year old is not going to say 'yep- I'll have that'"
What they didn't know was that Factor 8 was, in some cases, made from blood donated by groups at high risk of HIV and hepatitis, including drug addicts and prisoners in America, paid for their donation.
As early as 1975 boys at Treloars began to fall ill, initially with hepatitis. Former pupils remember boys turning yellow, and being segregated from other students. But by the early 1980s, with the stigma of AIDS at its highest- they began to receive devastating news that they were infected with not only hepatitis, but HIV too.
Lee Moorey, 48, remembers that moment vividly: "I came here when I was 12 years old. Two years later, I was told I had only two years to live"
Lee met his future wife while they were pupils at Treloars. She sadly died in the early 2000s. His return to Treloars today is the first time he has felt able to come.
The day is emotional for all of them. We are here at the invitation of Treloars, a chance for the former students to remember the friends they lost.
"We made a pledge then that we'll see this through" says Steve. "If there's ever anyone around, we'll find out and get to the truth. That's why we're here today."
Gary Webster, 56, from Eastleigh, agrees. He was sent to the school in 1975, one of the first haemophiliacs to attend: "It's only when we're all together that we can truly be ourselves" he says. "We all just understand what each of us has been through, we've shared the pain, the disappointments, the anger, both at school and since"
Another of the group, Richard Warwick, 55, from Scarborough, says the repercussions are lifelong: "There is another burden, and that is of survivor's guilt- because we have lost so many school friends, people who we thought were untouchables at the time- and that is a very hard pill to swallow"
They've been well-supported by Treloars, which remains a pioneering and outstanding school- windows in the chapel commemorate the pupils they lost, and they have never shied away from what is a tragic part of their past.
But some former pupils find it impossible to forgive the school's role in the scandal, believing they should have been much more protective of their students.
"My parents were kept completely in the dark," says Gary. "I got letters home from the school telling them I'd been a naughty boy, but nothing about my treatment, or my illnesses. Nothing for eight years."
He only learned during the inquiry that he had been put on a trial during his first year at school.
Its former headmaster, Alec Macpherson, told the inquiry he had known about the research but avoided questioning the doctors because he trusted them.
Following that evidence, Gary moved to sue the school for breaching its duty of care.
His court case is on hold pending the report findings.
In a statement, Treloar's said; "Staff, students and their families, together placed their trust in the treatment and advice given out by the NHS clinic, and the doctors and medical professionals who ran it in the 1970s and 80s.
"It has been shocking to discover, through the ongoing public inquiry, that some of our students may have received treatment there which was unsafe or experimental, and that the NHS did not always obtain sufficient consent.
We know that people’s lives were torn apart by what was done to them, right across the country, through the treatment they received from the NHS at the time.
"They all deserve answers from the ongoing public inquiry, and we strongly support the urgent need to accelerate compensation payments from the Government. We want to ensure that their horrendous experiences are acknowledged and remembered."
Now, as the report is published, the Treloars boys say they've honoured the pledge they made to their classmates:
"There's all the people who should be here" says Ade. "They should be and they're not. It's a lot of responsibility for us to carry and for their families.
"There are people now hiding away so we have to speak up and treasure their memory and make sure that we carry it as best as we can."