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A Belfast woman said her life was ruined after receiving transfusion blood.
Marie Cromie learned that she had contracted hepatitis C in 2005 and that she had had to undergo two liver transplants.
She spoke before the public inquiry into the tainted blood scandal began to hear testimony from people in Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
Thousands of people are thought to have been infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses through contaminated blood products.
Other people who had a blood transfusion after surgery in the 1970s and 1980s were also exposed to tainted blood.
Sending to BBC News NI, Ms. Cromie described her shock and anger after she was informed that she was infected. She stated that it "has taken part of my life with my children and my grandchildren".
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Public inquiry into tainted blood arrives in Northern Ireland on Tuesday
At the same time, party leaders and leading MPs sent a letter to the Prime Minister demanding compensation.
Signatories include Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Democratic Unionist (DUP) MP Nigel Dodds.
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The public inquiry will hear the evidence at Belfast's Waterfront Hall for four days.
Some of the victims in Northern Ireland and their families will testify, including Mrs. Cromie's daughter, Danielle Mullan.
Ms. Mullan said the diagnosis had laid the foundation for the family world.
She said: "It was really difficult because I was no longer a girl, I was rather a caregiver for my mother."
She added that over the years, it became more and more difficult to see the complications that her mother had to endure.
Ms. Cromie traced the hepatitis to a blood transfusion that she had to undergo at the birth of her son in 1981.
Until she felt very bad in 2005, she did not know that she had been infected.
After the tests, a consultant told her that she was suffering from hepatitis C, that she had already started touching her liver and that she would eventually need a graft .
She has since undergone two transplants, the second of which in 2015 at King's College Hospital in London.
Say goodbye
Ms. Cromie recounted that she was "at the door of death" while waiting for a decent liver and said it was "horrible" to have to say goodbye to Ms. Mullan at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
She said, "I just watched it and thought:" I may not see you again. "
Marie Cromie had two liver transplants
The problem dates back to the 1970s when blood clotting products imported from the United States infected some patients with HIV and hepatitis.
In fact, part of the human blood plasma used to make the products came from donors such as prisoners and prostitutes who sold their blood.
The blood products were made by pooling the plasma of 40,000 donors and concentrating it.
The warnings were raised as early as 1974.
Eight years later, as the AIDS crisis emerged, the Westminster Department of Health was informed by experts of its intention to withdraw them, but it was not taken into account until 1986.
Families want to know why and who in the NHS and the government knew what and when.
Vomiting blood
For Ms. Mullan, the severity of her mother's health became evident as a result of a particularly scary incident when she started throwing up blood at home.
She said, "I went to the room and turned on the light, there was just a gallon of blood, blood after blood, it would not stop going up, it would not stop. not.
"We called an ambulance and took her to the hospital.
"They told us it was touching and that we were going to spend the night and that for me it was when it really hit the house."
Danielle Mullan will testify at the investigation
She said at that time that she had realized that her mother was fighting something "far beyond" a normal infection.
The public inquiry on what has been called the "biggest scandal of NHS history treatment" was announced in 2017.
The first testimonies began to be heard in London in April 2019.
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Both women said they want answers and that someone takes responsibility.
Ms. Cromie said, "Why did anyone decide to buy tainted blood?" "To collect tainted blood from America, prisoners, drug addicts and give it to us." innocent, who needed it? "
Ms. Mullan would also like a better understanding.
She said, "I want to overcome the stigma of the disease, so many people over the years, you mention the word hepatitis and people think automatically: they must have used drugs, they were alcoholics.
"This is not the case, my mother and all the people involved in this investigation have been victims of this case.
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For Ms. Cromie, hearings of the public inquiry in Belfast are another step on a long road.
She said: "At first, when I realized, two nurses, hepatitis nurses, told me not to talk to too many people about it.
"I just had to say:" Oh, I caught a virus. "
"That's what I said instead of being able to say:" I had hepatitis C through infected blood. "
"But now I will tell people when they tell you about your transplants and your things, I say," Yes, I had it with tainted blood. "
"And my husband said the same thing to people, without any fault on my part, I got it."
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