Courage Is Contagious: Why Glenn’s Stand on 2 September Needs All of Us

Organising a protest takes far more than choosing a date and asking people to attend.

It means accepting responsibility, pressure and public scrutiny. It means continuing when arrangements become difficult, when people question whether attending will make any difference and when the emotional weight of representing a traumatised community becomes overwhelming.

Glenn has shown extraordinary courage by taking that responsibility and arranging the infected blood demonstration on 2 September.

He has created another opportunity for the infected blood community to stand together, speak directly to those in power and demonstrate that this scandal—and the harm still being caused by the compensation process—has not disappeared.

Campaign poster shared by Glenn’s group.

Glenn will not be standing alone

The Hepatitis C Trust and the Hepatitis B Positive Trust will be attending, alongside Families of the Deceased Victims of Infected Blood (UK), the Infected Blood Family Support Network and some of the community’s most determined campaigners.

Infected people, affected family members and bereaved relatives will stand together. Different experiences, different diagnoses and different campaign groups—but one community demanding recognition, justice and meaningful action.

More than numbers

The importance of attending cannot be measured only by how many people are physically present.

Every person who attends will represent many others who cannot.

Some members of the community are too unwell to travel. Some are elderly, disabled or caring for someone else. Others cannot afford the journey or manage the practical and emotional demands of attending a protest.

Bereaved families may find the occasion too painful. Some have spent decades fighting and simply have no energy left to give. Their absence must never be mistaken for indifference.

Those attending will carry their voices too. They will carry photographs, names, memories and stories—including those of people who died before receiving justice and those whose families continue to fight on their behalf.

A memorial banner will represent deceased victims whose relatives cannot attend. Their families may not be physically present, but their loved ones will still be part of the protest.

“Every person who attends will represent far more than themselves.”

Why visibility still matters

The infected blood community has attended meetings, submitted evidence, completed forms, answered deeply personal questions and repeatedly explained the consequences of this scandal.

People have been told they were being heard. Yet many still feel ignored.

Bereaved families remain concerned about the lack of direct recognition for individual relatives. Carers believe their decades of unpaid work and sacrifice have been undervalued. Adult children continue to face arbitrary distinctions, while people affected by Hepatitis B fear their experiences are being minimised or excluded.

Behind every policy decision is a person whose life was permanently changed. That is why visibility matters.

When infected people, bereaved families, affected relatives, charities and campaign groups stand together near the heart of government, it becomes harder for those in power to reduce them to statistics, categories or case numbers.

A protest places the human consequences back where they belong: directly in front of the people responsible for delivering justice.

Standing together

There have been understandable divisions within the infected blood community. Different people have suffered in different ways, and the compensation scheme has sometimes made those differences feel like competition.

But justice for one group should never require silence from another.

Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C must be recognised. Living infected people and bereaved families must be heard. Partners, parents, siblings, children and carers must all have space to explain the harm done to them.

The attendance of the Hepatitis C Trust and the Hepatitis B Positive Trust sends an important message: no diagnosis and no part of this community should be pushed aside.

The presence of campaign groups and experienced campaigners will strengthen that message further. This is not about one organisation claiming ownership of the day. It is about people standing alongside one another because the cause is greater than any single group.

A moment that must be used

No protest can reverse the deaths, restore the lost years or remove the trauma carried by infected and affected families. But silence will not achieve those things either.

The 2 September demonstration is an opportunity to remind government, Parliament and the wider public that the scandal did not end with the Inquiry’s final report. Its consequences continue through delays, exclusions, unequal treatment and decisions that many families still cannot understand or accept.

Glenn has been brave enough to create that moment. The trusts, campaign groups and campaigners attending will help give it strength.

Now, everyone who is able to attend has an opportunity to stand beside them—not only for themselves, but for those who are too ill, too exhausted, too far away or no longer alive to stand there.

“Glenn has been brave enough to create the moment. On 2 September, the rest of us must help make that moment impossible to ignore.”

Demonstration details

Wednesday 2 September 2026, 12 noon until 4pm King George V statue, Old Palace Yard, Abingdon Street, London SW1P 3JY—opposite the House of Lords.

Every voice will matter. Every photograph will matter. Every name will matter. And every person who attends will help make the community—and those it has lost—impossible to ignore.

Stand together. Carry every voice. — The Unheard Voice