A KIDDERMINSTER woman who contracted hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products will attend a historic debate in Parliament addressing the tainted blood scandal.

Ros Cooper, 36, of Shrubbery Street, was diagnosed with type III von Willebrand disease (vWD) - a severe bleeding disorder - when she was six months old.

Since that time, she has needed regular injections of blood products, as well as blood transfusions.

She believes she probably contracted hepatitis C when she had her first injections and says the effects have devastated her life.

She is “delighted”, however, that the House of Commons will debate today the scandal that infected 4,800 British haemophiliacs with multiple viruses, including HIV and Hepatitis C, via their NHS treatment.

It will call on the Government to implement the findings of Lord Archer's two-year independent inquiry into the issue.

To date, about 2,000 people have died as a result of the infections they were given as part of their NHS treatment.

The debate is also significant as the first one to be granted by the newly established Backbench Business Committee, set up to allow backbench MPs to have more say in which debates are heard.

Mrs Cooper hopes it will raise awareness of the issue and generate support for the ongoing campaign for compensation.

She said: “I am delighted that we have achieved a debate in the House of Commons after 15 years of campaigning.

“The debate is vital at this time, to ensure that the Ggovernment, which appears keen to finally put things right, have demonstrated support to this end.”

Mrs Cooper, married to husband, Ade, has been free of hepatitis C following a second course of “horrendous” treatment in 2002-3.

She still has chronic fatigue which, in conjunction with her bleeding condition, has left her unable to work for the past three years.

She will be joined by her 71-year-old father, John Batten, for the trip to London and has the support of Wyre Forest MP, Mark Garnier.

Conservative, Mr Garnier, praised Mrs Cooper for her “steadfastness” in lobbying on the issue and said society had a duty to compensate people affected in that way.

He added he had ensured his name was pencilled in to speak during the debate, although there was no guarantee he would get the opportunity.