By Kate Pickles Health Editor

Published: 19:10 EDT, 26 September 2023 | Updated: 20:24 EDT, 26 September 2023

Millions of Americans are unknowingly being exposed to toxic smoke from vapes and cigarettes on a regular basis, a study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Florida testing the blood of 13,000 people found evidence of nicotine exposure in 51 percent of participants.

Of this group, a whopping 67.6 percent had insisted they were not breathing in smoke from vapes or cigarettes.

The findings suggest 56million Americans — or nearly one in five adults — are unwittingly taking in this smoke.

The team warned there was ‘no safe level’ of this smoke to breathe in, saying it raises the risk of heart and lung problems and cancer. Separate research suggests it could even cause smaller testicles.

Vaping has taken off in the US with more than nine million Americans now using the devices, with popularity surging to as many as one in four high schoolers.

Cigarette smoking also remains reasonably common with 28million Americans lighting up regularly, mostly in the Midwest and South. The habit has virtually disappeared in some areas, however, such as Manhattan.

Smoke from cigarettes and vapes may linger in the air for hours after it is released in indoor and poorly ventilated areas, risking others breathing it in.

Dr Ruixuan Wang, a public health expert who led the study, warned: ‘There is no safe level of secondhand smoke exposure, and long-term exposure can increase the risk of many chronic conditions.

‘[These include] coronary heart disease, respiratory disease and cancers.’

She added: ‘We want people to be aware of their exposure so they can take protective actions.’

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the US National Health Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted between 2013 and 2020.

This survey is carried out annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help assess the health of the nation.

For their study, the researchers looked at a nationally-representative sample of survey data on Americans reporting second-hand smoking — breathing in fumes from smokers and vapers. 

They also looked at data from blood tests for cotinine, which is a byproduct of nicotine made by the body after someone breathes in smoke. It can linger in the blood for days.

Researchers found that, overall, 34.6 percent of participants under-reported their exposure to nicotine.

They also found that the levels of cotinine in the blood of people reporting second-hand smoke exposure was higher than among those who were not reporting this. 

Dr Jennifer LeLaurin, a biomedical expert and senior author of the study, added: ‘It could be the case that for low-level exposure, maybe you don’t notice it. 

‘You’re in a public setting, and maybe you’re not even aware someone is using tobacco around you. Maybe it’s so minor you forgot.

‘There’s also the possibility that some of the respondents were aware of some secondhand smoke exposure but chose not to report it due to the stigma.’

It comes after a study in mice suggested that exposure to smoke from vapes makes your testicles smaller and lowers your sperm count.

In research on male rats, experts from Turkey tested what effect exposure to smoke from e-cigarettes and normal cigarettes had on the rodents’ sexual health.

They measured how much sperm the animals could make, what their testicles looked like under a microscope and markers of stress in the blood and genitals.

The authors wrote: ‘It should be considered that although [e-cigarette] liquid has been introduced as harmless in smoking cessation studies, it could increase oxidative stress and cause morphological changes in the testicle.’ 

But regular cigarettes – which have long been tied to male infertility – were even worse in terms of lowering sperm count and disrupting sexual function. 

Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise diagnosed with blood cancer and is in treatment: ‘I intend to return to Washington’ after months-long battle, he says

• ‘I have now begun treatment, which will continue for the next several months. I expect to work through this period and intend to return to Washington,’ he said 
• The diagnosis comes after the congressman was shot by a crazed gunman while practicing for the congressional baseball game in 2017 

By Morgan Phillips, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 14:04 EDT, 29 August 2023

By Xantha Leatham, Deputy Science Editor For The Daily Mail

Updated: 18:30 EDT, 24 August 2023

HEALTH NOTES: Lung injections to tackle life-threatening blood clots can cut the risk of death by HALF

By Mail on Sunday Reporter

Updated: 19:40 EDT, 5 August 2023

Rishi Sunak was heckled as he told victims of the infected blood scandal their decades-long wait for compensation would have to continue.

The Prime Minister came face to face with protesters and campaigners at the inquiry into what happened, and what recompense they should receive.

But angry audience members accused him of ‘not listening’ and laughed sarcastically en masse when he said work to settle the issue was continuing ‘at pace’.

The spectacle of shouting down a sitting Prime Minister giving evidence prompted a rebuke from inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, who urged them to abide by the ‘tradition of respecting the witness’.

One woman walked out in tears as the Prime Minister said he could only speak about ‘the Government I’m responsible for’.

It followed a series of questions from inquiry lawyer Jenni Richards KC about a lack of compensation for victims since former Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt wrote to then-Chancellor Mr Sunak in early 2020, urging him to organise payouts as soon as possible.

Mr Sunak said he was not aware of her letters at the time, as they were dealt with by officials.

At least 2,900 NHS patients – including young children – died from being infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Many others continue to live with serious medical conditions caused by tainted blood products.

It has been described as the worst treatment scandal in the history of the health service, yet those infected and affected by it have been forced to fight for a compensation body to recognise their suffering and loss.

Sir Brian announced in April he was taking the unusual step of publishing the recommendation that bereaved parents and children of victims should receive immediate £100,000 interim compensation payments ahead of the publication of the full report into the scandal so that victims would not face any more delays.

The inquiry has also recommended that the Government establishes an arms-length compensation body soon.

An independent report by Sir Robert Francis recommended victims should eventually be compensated for physical and social injury, the stigma of the disease, the impact on family and work life, and the cost of care, while the parents, siblings and children of victims who have now died should also receive payouts, he said,

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian’s final report is expected later in the year.

Giving evidence to the inquiry in central London this afternoon, in front of an audience of around nearly 500 people infected and affected by the scandal, Mr Sunak accepted people had to wait decades for compensation.

But he said it would not be appropriate to settle compensation fully until the final report was completed.

He said: ‘Before making final decisions there is the context in which those decisions need to be made, so understanding the full context of the inquiry’s findings about what has happened over the preceding decades is important for a variety of policy reasons.

‘That’s why the Government would ordinarily wait to have the final report, so it has a full set of findings to make decisions on.

‘There is good legal precedent and reasons for that and rational decision-making would suggest that is the right thing to do.’

He said he was unable to put a timescale on when compensation would be sorted.

Mr Sunak said: ‘I do not want to add to what I believe to be a litany of broken promises and dashed expectations of everyone in this room and everyone watching (online) has had to endure for years, if not decades.

‘It is hard for me to give a precise time frame on exactly when and how these things will be resolved.’

But he said the interim £100,000 payouts and the acceptance of a moral case for compensation was an example of his Government’s ‘desire to see this through’.

Mr Sunak described the scandal as ‘a tragedy which should not have happened and we must right the wrong’.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, he said: ‘The Government is committed in responding to this inquiry’s final report when it is published and I understand that work is underway across government to ensure that a substantial response on a full compensation scheme can be included.

‘I am aware of the complexities of preparing an adequate compensation scheme, including the likely need for primary legislation.

‘As is the usual process for managing policy decisions, this work is being led by other ministers and I will be sighted in relation to the scope of the scheme and intended response at the appropriate stage when they have a formal set of recommendations to make based on their expertise.’

The Government agreed last summer to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims, and bereaved widows.

But while some victims have received financial support, not all have been fully compensated.

Campaigners fear the Government is dragging its feet over the issue by not yet establishing a full compensation framework for all those affected.

Both Jeremy Quin, the current lead minister sponsoring the inquiry, and Penny Mordaunt, one of his predecessors as Paymaster General, this week told the inquiry the Government was determined to resolve the issue.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to give evidence on Friday.

Mr Sunak’s appearance comes ahead of an anticipated grilling at the Covid Inquiry in the autumn, at which his time as Chancellor during the pandemic will be scrutinised.

MARTIN BEARD: No wonder Rishi Sunak was jeered, when tainted blood victims like me have had to wait decades for justice

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

The social services department involved in the case of tragic Amber Gibson has ‘blood on its hands’, according to relatives of the young girl murdered by her elder brother.

The accusation came as it was announced that an independent review of the circumstances of Amber’s death while under the care of South Lanarkshire Council will be completed after further interviews with witnesses in the criminal case.

Connor Gibson, 20, was yesterday convicted of attacking his sister Amber, 16, in woodland in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, in November 2021.

He removed her clothing, sexually assaulted her with the intention of raping her, inflicted blunt-force trauma to her head and body, and strangled her.

Even after her death, the sickening ordeal was not yet over as Stephen Corrigan, 45, the man who discovered the body in woodland violated her remains and was convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by intimately touching and concealing the body, instead of contacting the emergency services.

Amber and her brother had spent much of their lives in care, but a source from their extended biological family today told MailOnline that social workers from South Lanarkshire Council blocked their maternal grandparents’ efforts to have the children stay with them.

‘The social work department has blood on its hands,’ claimed the family member who asked to remain anonymous.

‘Ambers’ grandparents, Mr and Mrs Adams, are lovely people and did their best for the children, but they needed more help from the authorities and didn’t get it.’

‘It put an enormous financial strain on the Adams, when they had the kids, but they were offered no help. The council seemed to prefer to spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds placing Amber and Connor with foster parents, rather than their own family.’

Mr and Mrs Adams refused to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Amber was aged just three, and her brother five, when they were removed from an abusive family household where they would witness their father Peter Gibson beating their mother Anne-Marie Adams black and blue, dragging her by the hair, putting his hands around her throat.

Peter Gibson was jailed for 10 years only a few months ago for a litany of violent sexual crimes.

Now his son Connor also awaits a life sentence for the brutal killing of his own sister. By the time she was murdered, blameless Amber had spent almost all her life in the care system and had already been a victim of rape.

Amber, said foster parents Craig and Carol Niven, was the ‘most giving, caring, loving supportive and admirable person’ who had ‘the most amazing outlook on life’.

The devastated couple said they believed the siblings had been ‘let down throughout their lives by the system’.

Just five months before her death, Amber had been raped by 20-year-old Jamie Starrs at his home in Bothwell and her statement proved crucial in bringing the rapist to justice.

Giving evidence at the trial of Connor Gibson, Mr Niven described the siblings as ‘not a good mix’ and said that he wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them in each other’s company.

It was while they were together in November 2021 that Gibson pounced on his little sister, strangling and attacking her. He had also ripped off her clothes.

Her story began on New Year’s Day 2005 at Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire where her brother and eventual killer had been born two years earlier.

Her parents, Peter Gibson and his much younger partner Ann Marie Adams, are believed to have met online and, by the time Amber arrived, a pattern of abuse was well-established. At their home in North Berwick Crescent, East Kilbride, Gibson inflicted appalling violence on the mother of his children – punching her in the face and kicking her in the body – between August 2001 and August 2007.

The children were taken out of their parental home and put into care and in 2008 the Nivens were approached to look after the pair in another Lanarkshire town. Amber and her brother moved into their Larkhall home but concerns about the older sibling’s behaviour soon arose.

For a time they attended separate schools. Amber went to Moore House Academy, around 25 miles away in West Lothian’s Bathgate, while her brother was a pupil at Kear Campus in Blantyre, Lanarkshire – a secondary school for those with social, emotional and behavioural needs.

Former school friends described him as a loner who was prone to sudden fits of rage.

‘He would talk about killing other pupils which, to be fair, I saw as an over-exaggeration, but looking back on it now maybe the stuff he said wasn’t exaggeration at all,’ one classmate said.

A former female pupil described him as a ‘disgusting human’ who ‘threatened to rip’ her baby from her while she was pregnant.

Ultimately, the foster care arrangement broke down and Amber moved into Hamilton-based Hillhouse children’s unit when she was 14. Her brother remained with the Nivens until his 18th birthday in 2020.

It was while in the care of the state that Amber was raped by 20-year-old Jamie Starrs, who attacked her in June 2021 after being released on bail for another sex attack.

At the time of her murder, her brother was a resident at Hamilton’s Blue Triangle project, a hostel for homeless youngsters in Lanarkshire, while she was living at the Hillhouse unit.

Angel McKean, 19, a friend of Amber’s there, said the siblings’ relationship was turbulent.

But she said when she last spoke to Amber, hours before she was killed, she had been looking forward to seeing her brother.

Care home manager Ian Currie, 55, said Connor Gibson called the Hillhouse unit to speak to his sister on the day she was killed.

A short time later, Amber left with him, despite Mr Currie’s attempts to discourage her from doing so. She was never seen alive again.

Four days later, Gibson wrote a tribute to his sister on social media: ‘Amber. You will fly high for the rest of time. We all miss you. Especially me. I love you ginger midget, GBNF [gone but not forgotten] xx.’ Hours before he was arrested for her murder, he shared another post in which he urged townsfolk to ‘leave a light on’ for Amber.

It was while Connor Gibson was awaiting trial for murder that his natural father, aged 62, was jailed for physical and sexual abuse.

The High Court in Glasgow heard how he had raped a woman in East Kilbride, after tying her up and blindfolding her. He also grabbed this victim by the neck restricting her breathing.

Peter Gibson was also convicted of indecently assaulted a young boy and punching and kicking him to his injury. Other convictions included lewd and libidinous behaviour towards another boy.

Mr and Mrs Niven were in court yesterday to hear the guilty verdict on their former foster son. In a statement, they said: ‘When they arrived at our home, Amber was three and Connor aged five.

‘Connor stated “We are safe” – they were until he took the safety away.’

They added: ‘Amber deserved to live a life of hope and opportunities.

‘As a family, we will never be able to get over how this was taken from her. We are relieved the people involved in what happened to her are now behind bars.’

South Lanarkshire Council described the case as ‘truly tragic’ and confirmed that in 2021 it established an independent review of the circumstances, which can now conclude since the court case has been closed.

Professor Soumen Sengupta, Director of Health and Social Care for South Lanarkshire, said: “This has been a truly tragic case, and our thoughts remain with all those who knew and loved Amber. There are established procedures in place for tragic events of this nature which are designed to ensure that events are fully understood and, if necessary, learned from.

‘In this case, after Amber’s death the Care Inspectorate and the Chair of the Child Protection Committee (CPC) were informed. The CPC acted to establish an independent review under an extremely experienced independent expert in the field. They have already carried out most of the work involved and will now be able to conclude the review, including interviewing people who were witnesses in the criminal case.

‘The results of the review will be delivered to the CPC once complete and then shared with the Public Protection Chief Officer Group. It is anticipated that the findings will be publicly reported in an appropriate format.’

South Lanarkshire Council declined to comment on the family’s claims but a source with knowledge of the case insisted there had never been an application from members of Amber’s family for custody of her or her brother. 

For 30 years, Leanne Preedy has relied on antibodies contained in blood generously donated by strangers to keep her alive. 

Diagnosed at the age of four with an immune system disorder, Leanne needs regular antibody injections every few weeks to prevent her from picking up infections which could make her severely ill or worse. 

Leanne, 34, has Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) — those affected either lack or have low levels of immunoglobulin G, the most common type of antibody in our blood, which plays a key role in fighting off infections. 

Untreated, the condition means she is prone to infections and even a trivial cold can leave her severely ill — or lead to pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs), repeated bouts of which can cause lifethreatening lung disease. 

As a child, Leanne remembers being ‘in and out of hospital more times than my mum, Lorraine, wants to remember, often on oxygen or yet another course of antibiotics’. 

There is no cure for CVID, but the condition can be managed by regular infusions of medicine containing immunoglobulin to boost antibody levels — which is made by processing donations of blood plasma from members of the public. 

In fact, Leanne, a photographer from Ongar, Essex, is one of around 17,000 people in England who receive lifesaving immunoglobulin medicine every year. 

Around half of those need it after treatments such as chemotherapy for cancer or anti-rejection medication following an organ transplant which, while vital in themselves, both reduce antibody levels, leaving patients vulnerable to infections that could then prove fatal. 

Intravenous immunoglobulin is also used as a treatment for conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues — such as GuillainBarre syndrome, where it attacks the nervous system. 

Here, it’s thought healthy donated antibodies prevent the harmful ones from continuing the attack on the nerves. 

But the supply of this life-saving product has been in short supply — so short that in August 2021, the NHS admitted that some patients had to be given smaller doses of immunoglobulin or had to wait longer between infusions; fortunately no lives were directly put at risk. 

However, such shortages should soon be a thing of the past, after a recent ruling allowed the UK to make its own immunoglobulin for the first time in 20 years. 

Currently, 70 per cent of the immunoglobulin given to patients in infusions is made by firms in the U.S., which extract it from plasma — the liquid part of blood that contains infection-fighting antibodies — from donated blood or donations of plasma alone. 

For this, blood is taken from the donor’s arm and spun in a centrifuge to separate the plasma from red and white blood cells.

The red blood cells are then returned, and the process repeated until 700ml of plasma has been obtained. 

The donor’s body will replenish the plasma in around 48 hours. 

The plasma is frozen and stored and the immunoglobulin is separated out (by adding salt and ethanol during a process that takes about six months), but recent problems have highlighted how fragile the supply of this lifesaving product is. 

During the pandemic there was a 20 per cent drop in U.S. plasma donations and the price of immunoglobulin products rocketed, which had a further impact on global supplies.

In the UK, we have been reliant on imported plasma to make immunoglobulin since 1999, when the government banned the use of plasma from UK donors to stop the spread of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), so-called mad cow disease, a fatal neurological condition that causes irreversible brain damage.

‘As a vCJD precaution, the NHS has had to import immuno- globulin for more than 20 years, but international demand is so high there can be pressure on supplies,’ says Dr Naim Akhtar, a consultant in donor medicine at NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).

The ban was overturned in 2021 — after the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) decided UK plasma was as safe as that from overseas — and now final plans are being put in place to start the UK’s own immunoglobulin production.

Plasma is being donated in this country and stored in readiness for production — the NHSBT says it has around 5,000 plasma donors so far, but hopes to double this number. It’s hoped that our production of immunoglobulin will start next year and will produce 20 per cent of England’s needs, benefiting around 5,600 patients who need regular immunoglobulin infusions.

It’s an important step forward because, while supplies of immunoglobulin have dwindled, demand for products tripled between 2004 and 2018, partly driven by better diagnosis of conditions that need it, and increased use of cancer therapies.

‘The needs of new therapies using immunoglobulin are increasing all the time,’ says Dr Sinisa Savic, an associate professor of immunology and allergies at Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.

‘For example, some cancers are now treated using CAR T-cell therapy [an immunotherapy treatment where T-cells, which develop from stems cells in bone marrow, are altered before being returned to the patient’s body], which is proving successful in curing some cancers but the patient is left with a weakened immune system.

‘They are left lacking antibodies which need replacing with infusions of immunoglobulin.’

Both Leanne and her children, Ravella, seven, and Hudson, four, are likely to be among those receiving immunoglobulin made from UK-donated plasma.

When Leanne married Chris, 52, who works in property management, they were told it was unlikely CVID would be passed on to any future children, but when Ravella was a baby she spent two weeks in hospital with swine flu.

‘She had various tests and aged one was diagnosed with CVID like me,’ says Leanne. ‘It was heartbreaking knowing she had it, too.

‘Although I have never let my low immunity define me and have led a normal life, I still felt a mother’s guilt about that.’

Hudson was also diagnosed with CVID, at two weeks old.

For the children and Leanne, their regular immunoglobulin infusions are literally a lifeline.

Leanne was a youngster herself when she started having intravenous immunoglobulin injections into her arm every three weeks in hospital. To minimise her absences from secondary school, a nurse came to the family home every week to administer injections into her thighs.

But when Leanne began to experience recurrent chest infections in her 20s, she resumed intravenous injections in hospital, which allowed her to have a bigger dose. These days, Leanne receives her immunoglobulin every three weeks in a 90-minute procedure using an automatic pump at home.

A nurse inserts the cannula into her arm, but Leanne operates the pump, which is on a stand she can carry around with her. ‘Often before I’m due my next infusion, I feel fatigued and I sense my body needs another,’ she says.

‘Afterwards I feel energised and have lots of get-up-and-go to get things done. I do have peaks and troughs with tiredness, but most of the time the infusions do keep me well.’

Infusions are now a normal part of life for her children, too.

‘On a Sunday morning every fortnight, my children sit on the sofa watching a movie as the immunoglobulin goes into the tops of their legs using an automatic pump,’ says Leanne.

Despite this, since starting pre-school Hudson in particular has picked up colds and tonsillitis, and by Christmas 2022 he had already needed hospital treatment twice as a result.

‘On other occasions he has had to go to hospital for oxygen or antibiotics because of breathing issues,’ says Leanne.

‘He picks up all the bugs all kids get when they start mixing, but he can become a lot more ill because of his poor immune system, which is a big worry.

‘It’s the immunoglobulin that keeps me, my children and thousands of other people alive.

‘Restarting plasma collection here once again can only be a good thing for all of us.’

Home blood test that could check for more than 50 types of cancer could change care forever and BOOST survival rates, NHS boss claims

• One million NHS patients with no symptoms will be enrolled in the world trial

By Shaun Wooller Health Editor

Updated: 02:56 EDT, 16 June 2023