SHE is a lady of shadows, living a life without sunlight because of the side affects of Hepatitis C contracted from a contaminated blood transfusion.

The medical blunder almost three decades ago cost Gill Fyffe her health and her livelihood, but she has never given up hope that one day she would receive justice.

Now, after Theresa May announced there will finally be UK-wide inquiry into the scandal, which left 2,400 people dead and many more with serious diseases, the mother-of-two believes she will finally see those responsible brought to account at last.

During the 1970s and 80s, around 5,000 people were infected with HIV, Hepatitis B and C when they were given transfusions on the NHS which contained the viruses.

The scandal has so far cost the lives of 2,400 people, and left thousands of others with serious diseases.

Mrs Fyffe contracted Hep C when she was given blood after the birth of her daughter, and the treatment which eventually cured the disease left her with a fractured immune system and skin that cannot tolerate bright light.

The 58-year-old said: "When two and a half thousand people die of something, and no-one is help accountable, then something is very wrong.

"There are people in very high places who are supposed to look after us and when things get so badly wrong as this - even by accident - you would have to be the most callous sort of person to stay in your job.

"Somebody at the top of the Department of Health should have taken responsibility and resigned."

She added: "I am not a vindictive person. But there has to be respect. By not taking responsibility and not resigning, it is as if my life was wrecked, but it did not matter to them. Two and a half thousand people died, but it does not matter.

"I understand these decision had to be made, but at the same time, someone has to be accountable for them."

Two years ago the Penrose inquiry, Scottish Government's own probe, reported back.

But, limited in its scope, it did not identify those responsible for the scandal, and was branded a whitewash by some campaigners.

Mrs Fyffe took the disappointment in her stride, but was fresh hope was kindled when the Prime Minister said that the issue would be looked at again.

She said: "My first reaction was one of shock. If something does not happen for so long, it takes you by surprise when it suddenly does.

"I went through a long time of thinking I should not get my hopes up, but now they are. I can't help it.

"After the previous [Penrose] inquiry I know that everything moves forward in inches and I am happy to see another us going another inch forward."

Her illness, which began in her late 20s, forced her to give up teaching and pushed her and husband Stan to the brink of the breadline as they raised their two children in Edinburgh.

Now an author, Mrs Fyffe has written a memoir titled Life Blood and is now working on a new novel, although finances have never been anything other than tight. 

She has learned to live with her condition, making adjustments which many others would find hard to cop with. 

She said:  "I'm sitting here in a basement flat with double black out blinds writing on a computer which doesn't have a light up screen. I've basically become nocturnal.

"My husband lives in the dark with me. We go for long walks at midnight and have to find places that stay open late if we want a coffee.

"We've become regulars at a little restaurant that knows we'll be in at 11pm just before they shut to get a takeaway latte."

She added: "My family have been wonderful. My son, my husband, my daughter and now my daughter in law have all been a tremendous support.

"What they are particularly good at is when I'm getting tired of it all. One time when it was all really getting to me, I had just burst into tears and my son tried to cheer me up by saying 'you're one step down from a vampire'.

"It was funny. It was around the time the Twilight films came out, and he thought it was pretty cool. I can laugh about it."

A spokesman for the Prime Minister promised that the new inquiry would be "wide-ranging" in its quest to establish the truth of what happened.

He added: "Consultation will now take place with those affected to decide exactly what form the inquiry will take, such as a Hillsborough-style independent panel or a judge-led statutory inquiry."