Vincent is a semi-retired artist and antiques dealer. After his first wife left him, taking the children, in the late sixties, he went through troubled times and was for many years an injecting drug user. He spent time in prison for stealing from pharmacies and forging prescriptions. However, he took care not to share needles with anyone else. One day in 1983 he had a psychotic episode which led to him jumping out of a first floor window. He was badly injured and needed surgery and a blood transfusion, and now looking back he believes this was when he contracted the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). However, he did not discover he had the infection until much later on.

Vincent gave up drugs voluntarily with the help of some friends who kept him in his flat and looked out for him for 8 days. A few months later he met the woman who was to become his second wife. They have been together 23 years, and have two much-loved daughters.

In 2005 Vincent was seeing his GP and the GP noted that he had previously used drugs so should perhaps be tested for HCV. Vincent was angry at first when he discovered he had the virus, but says he can’t feel bitter, as it was his own lifestyle that led to the accident, which in turn led to the blood transfusion. It took him a long while to decide to give treatment a try, because the regime and the possible side effects sounded so severe. Eventually he did have treatment after seeing someone with advanced liver problems in the waiting room. He had severe side effects, both mental and physical, but stuck with it for all but one week out of the 47 weeks of treatment, motivated by the thought of his family. He still feels he has not really fully recovered, and has recently been experiencing a lot of anxiety and hyperactivity, and difficulty concentrating. Coping with his mood swings has been hard for his wife in particular.

Sadly for Vincent the treatment did not successfully clear the virus from his system, but he continues to be monitored regularly. He tries to live as healthy a life as possible and to remain optimistic. He is keen to do anything he can to help develop better treatments for others diagnosed with HCV in future, and so he has recently agreed to give blood samples for a research study into the condition. He would like to know more about the research in future, when his concentration has improved again. In the meantime, he is happy to do whatever he can, and feels he has had the best possible care from his GP and the hospital.