Fabulous and fearsome: Mark publishes his life story

Written by Sam Wilson, December 9, 2024

To his many friends in the bleeding disorders community, Mark Ward has always been inspirational. Now his autobiography Bleeding Fabulous tells the full story of how a young boy with haemophilia went on to change the world.

Mark, who became the world’s first LGBT Ambassador for the bleeding disorders community when he took on the role for the Haemophilia Society in 2019, is a long-standing campaigner in the fight for justice for those infected and affected by contaminated blood products. He also champions disability and gay rights and challenges prejudice wherever he finds it.

Becoming a published author is a ‘pinch me’ moment for Mark. He said: ‘There have been many times when I have believed I would not survive, and I wanted my story to be told. Now it is there in black and white for the world to see and I’m really proud of that achievement.’

Bleeding Fabulous sets out the shocking story of Mark’s infection with HIV as a child through contaminated treatment for his haemophilia and describes his search to find his place in the world, often feeling lonely and isolated. This wasn’t helped when a nurse in the 1980s told him that no one with haemophilia was gay.

Mark’s early life is defined by the love of his family who rallied around to support him after they received the bombshell of his severe haemophilia A diagnosis at the age of three. His parents almost literally tried to wrap him in cotton wool, with Mark’s mum, Dot, sewing specially padded dungarees which he wore with a little crash helmet when he was playing.

As a boy Mark loved aeroplanes and dreamed of travelling. At the age of seven he became the first boy in his class to travel on a plane when his parents took him to Jersey. His dad bought him a three-piece suit to wear on the journey. It was an adventure Mark would never forget.

But despite his parents’ fight to get Mark educated in a mainstream school, bad bleeds meant he spent an increasing amount of time in hospital and in terrible pain. It was in 1977, aged eight, that he was first given imported US factor VIII treatment, against his parents’ wishes. Then, in 1984, in hospital for an operation on his knee, the family received devastating news in the most casual of ways.

A haemophilia nurse asked them if they wanted to know Mark’s HIV result. Unaware that he’d been tested for the virus, they looked up in confusion. ‘It’s positive’, she said, ‘See you next time’ and left. A consultant told them later that Mark, then aged 14, had two to three years to live. Mark describes his grief as he tried to process what he’d been told.

Defying his doctors’ predictions, Mark went on to get his dream job with British Airways and began to travel and live independently. Finding his place on the gay scene, surviving more near-fatal health scares along the way, Mark began to understand more about what happened to him as a child and, in 2002, began his search for answers and justice, joining the newly formed Tainted Blood campaign group in 2006.

Mark also began speaking at bleeding disorder conferences around the world and set up his support group Haemosexual. He started to be interviewed in the media and his influence

increased. In 2012 he married his long-term partner Richard who has been a huge source of support for Mark.

Bleeding Fabulous finishes with the Infected Blood Inquiry, which Mark’s campaigning helped to secure, and its vindication of the contaminated blood community’s long-held belief that the scandal was not an accident.

Throughout Bleeding Fabulous, Mark’s irrepressible enthusiasm, inclusiveness and sense of fun is never far from the surface. It is a tale of love, belief and determination which will inspire anyone who reads it.

Mark said: ‘I hope people reading this who feel different and don’t fit in will connect with this book. My dream is that it gives people hope and strength to face their darkness, whatever that might be. I want them to think that if I can do it, they can too.’

Bleeding Fabulous by Mark Ward can be ordered from any bookshop and is available to buy online.