Stephen Smith from Helston is encouraging more people to get tested and to be aware of hepatitis and the consequences that can go with it if left undetected.

58 year old Mr Smith was diagnosed with Hepatitis C during a check-up at his new GP surgery, Helston Medical Centre. He had been suffering with a pain in his stomach and back for several years and had undergone numerous tests and procedures to investigate his symptoms and unexplained abnormal blood results.

One month after the worrying diagnosis, Stephen has been given a specialised liver ultrasound which has shown the extent of the damage to his liver, currently stage two progressing to stage three.

He has also been put on a 12 week course of drugs called Epclusa. Early diagnosis and treatment increases the chances of a full cure and helps to prevent or slow any liver damage.

The former London Underground worker was also shocked to learn that he must have contracted the illness back in 1985, from blood transfusions he had received following a serious accident that completely severed the artery, tendon and nerves in his right leg. Stephen said: “After finding out what Hepatitis C can do to your body and your mind, it’s all making so much sense why I’ve been, for such a long time, a depressed, moody, tired, lethargic person with constant aches and pains.

"It has upset my family and there’s also the awful task of telling my daughter, who was born in 1994, to have a hepatitis test as she may have been infected through it by my blood during birth.

"This virus has taken from me the best years of my life for the past 36 years, I’m furious to think that a simple blood test over the past 36 years would have highlighted this and I wouldn’t of been the person who I’ve been for nearly four decades, this virus has stopped me from being happier, fitter, stronger potentially, and a simple blood test could of done that for me." He added.

Helen Hampton, Viral Hepatitis Specialist Nurse at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust said “I’d like to thank Stephen for sharing his story to help us raise awareness. I strongly encourage anyone who feels they could be at any risk of having this virus to get tested as it is often hidden with no symptoms. Get tested today and together we can eliminate Hepatitis C.”

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hepatitis-c/symptoms/