Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 07:00
Teacher Belinda Sully broke almost every bone in her body in a car crash in Jordan in the 1970s, but 30 years later she found out that the treatment had left her with the disease hepatitis C.
Ms Sully, 56, has traced the infection back to a blood transfusion she had in hospital following her accident. She had been teaching in the Middle Eastern country before the crash, where she broke both legs and hips, and suffered severe head and face injuries. Three weeks after the accident she was flown back to England and spent six months at the National Orthopaedic Hospital.
Although she needs to use sticks, Ms Sully can now walk unaided, and in 2006 – 30 years after the crash – she walked the London Marathon. The year before the teacher had noticed that she was not feeling well and went to her GP, but a series of tests for diabetes and other conditions came back negative.
Ms Sully, of Windmill Hill, started noticing unexplained blisters on her hands and it was not until a chance meeting with an old friend in October 2005 that it was suggested the cause could be hepatitis C.
She said: "I was at a funeral and saw a very old friend of mine I hadn't seen for 30 years who happened to be a dermatologist.
"I showed him my hands and asked if he had any idea what could have caused it and he asked if I had ever been checked for hepatitis C.
He said that after the massive blood transfusions I was given following the accident I should be tested."
Doctors confirmed that Ms Sully, of Vivian Street, had hepatitis C in June 2006, and after a liver biopsy, treatment started in January 2007. She had injections of the drug Interferon once a week and tablets every day for a year. She had to take a year off her job at Cotham School because the treatment left her feeling exhausted.
"My body felt like it was being bombarded with drugs and my immune system was being pushed all over the place," said Ms Sulley.
"It made me very tired and I was not able to do much at all.
"But I just got on with things. It is part of my life."
Tests after the drugs showed that the hepatitis had not gone away, but she now sees it as part of her.
"I still get very tired but I live with it and get on with it," added Ms Sulley.
"Hepatitis C is part of me like my wobbly legs, my broken bones and my sense of humour.
"Without the blood transfusions I had in Jordan I would not be here. It is one of those things."
Today is World Hepatitis Day to raise awareness about the blood-borne virus.
It is believed that 200,000 people in England have the long-term infection. It is sometimes called the "silent virus" because most people do not show any symptoms for years.
Factfile
Hepatitis C is spread through blood-to-blood contact and can be transmitted by someone with the disease through sharing a razor or toothbrush, unsterile tattoos or piercings, from a mother to baby before, during or after birth, during medical or dental treatment in countries where the virus is common if equipment is not sterilised properly, or from blood transfusions carried out before 1992.
Symptoms can take years or decades to show up and there could be as many as 100,000 undiagnosed cases of hepatitis C in England.
Some people experience flu-like symptoms, fatigue or nausea but the majority of people do not know they are suffering from the potentially life-threatening virus.
If left untreated, hepatitis C can damage the liver, and can lead to cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. Drugs can be effective in treating the long-term version of the disease to prevent it causing serious liver disease. For people who are treated soon after contracting hepatitis C, success rates can be as high as 90 per cent, but generally treatment is effective in 40 to 80 per cent of cases.
Unlike hepatitis A and B, there is no vaccine to protect against hepatitis C.
For more information about hepatitis C, visit the NHS hepatitis website or call the free helpline on 0800 181 411
The Hepatitis C Trust, a UK charity devoted to hepatitis C, runs a helpline staffed by people affected by the illness on 0845 223 4424 or see its website.
