ANDREW'S father, Ron, a retired teacher, told the Keighley News how he was angered by farmers' calls for compensation following the beef scares.

He says: "It makes my blood boil to see every couple of weeks about the beef farmers having a bad time of things and asking the taxpayer to compensate for it.

"In the food industry if you produce defective goods and you kill people you shouldn't really expect the government to compensate you." He adds: "There's no sign of any contrition from the beef industry."

While stating that the family holds no ill-will towards farmers, he is convinced the mad cow disease crisis should have been handled better. He says: "They might argue that it hasn't definitely been proved but it will be."

Links between mad cow disease and new variant CJD (nvCJD), which typically affects younger people, were identified by scientists in 1996 at the CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh. Statistics up to last month show there have been 52 cases of nvCJD in the UK.

Gillian Turner, case co-ordinator of the CJD Support Network, says the miniscule number of cases means statistics are hard to come by.

She says: "They say it's going to be about seven more years before they can actually say how many cases we can expect."

Prof Rob Wills, head of the CJD Surveillance Unit, co-wrote an article on the links between BSE and nvCJD. He concluded: "The possibility that a large section of the population is at risk must be seriously entertained." He said the research creates a "compelling argument" for a link between BSE and the causes of nvCJD."

Andrew's sister, Lynette, who is studying biomedical science at Hull University adds: "Things have changed now and things have tightened up, but it's too late now."

Marilyn, Andrew's mother, adds: "It's a time-bomb waiting. How many more people are walking around with it?"

Tracey says: "All the focus is on the farmers. You hardly ever get a mention of the people who have suffered. They are the real victims and they are forgotten." Opinion p10

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.