H E PAT I T I S C
HEPATITIS The Hepatitis C Trust is a national patient led organization, Julia and Jane are the women’s prison team. We cover all twelve female prisons, encouraging women to get tested and treated. Both of us have experience of using class A drugs, contracting hepatitis c and curing it. We also both know how it feels to be in jail with hepatitis C. As women we want to encourage other women to come forward and get help. If there was ever a ‘good time’ to have hepatitis c in jail, that time would be now. The new treatment is classed as a CURE, side effects are minimal and the course of tablets is just eight to twelve weeks.
JULIA’S STORY I was first diagnosed in 2006/7 on an all too frequent hospital admission. I remember being told “you are positive for the hepatitis C virus” but given no more information on treatment or even what hep C actually was. I had often heard of hep C within my circle over 40 H E A LT H Y F O U N DAT I O N S
the years and I was aware as an injecting drug user I was at risk but I still found the diagnosis a shock. I guess it’s that thought of “it’s not going to happen to me”. It did. Facing and dealing with my hep C was not a priority at that time. My life was chaotic and denial pretended to be my friend so to the back of my mind it was pushed. In 2015 I was given a prison sentence and sent to HMP Holloway. Whilst there I started engaging with healthcare and met the hep C doctor. It was not like it is today - I was released before I could get any help. The game changer for me happened a few months later when a good friend of mine lost his battle to hep C and died. I didn’t want that to happen to me. My ability to bury my head in the sand and ignore it disappeared, I was filled with an urgency to face it and see how I could get rid of it. Somewhere between prison and losing my friend, a new treatment had become available…a cure! So I did the new treatment. JULIA AND To me it was a miracle. JANE I was cured of hepatitis
