One of Neighbours‘ most beloved stars, Carla Bonner, has revealed her father Peter passed away from AIDS after he contracted HIV from blood transfusions.
Carla, who played Stephanie Scully on the soap from 1999 to 2010, shared the heartbreaking story on World AIDS Day, saying her dad “lived his last days in shame, terrified and alone”.
Peter developed kidney disease in the early ’80s, before going on to undergo a kidney transplant procedure. But what followed was years of turmoil for the Bonner family.
Carla, who played Stephanie Scully from 1999 to 2010, shared the heartbreaking story on World AIDS Day.
(Ten)“But his body rejected the kidney & he had to have blood transfusions. [We were] assured by the Aussie government the blood was clean, and safe coming from our brothers and sisters wanting to help fellow Aussies,” she wrote in a heartbreaking Instagram post.
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“Those transfusions were the beginning of the end for him. The end of life as he knew it. The end of his dignity. And tragically the end of his life.”
Peter then tragically passed away from AIDS in 1986 when Carla was just 13 years old.
“I’m so sorry he suffered the way he did. The way he was treated was abhorrent. Lower class. Bottom of the barrel.. he lived his last days in shame, terrified and alone,” the actress penned.
Peter Bonner tragically passed away from AIDS in 1986 when Carla was just 13 years old.
(Instagram)But the heartbreak for the Bonner family didn’t end there. Carla went on to reveal that after her father died, medical staff put him in a plastic bag and a metal casket “in case the virus could travel underground”.
“They destroyed his belongings, burned everything.
“I lived with this for 35 years, believing a story we were told by the government about the ‘accidental’ contamination. In 2020 a lot of truths surfaced across the world. A time of full disclosure.”
“I learned the story we were fed was gravely untrue.”
The mother-of-two aired her fury that many blood donors were couldn’t face litigation under statutes of limitation.
“Any opportunity I had to have him in my life was taken from me when I really needed him,” she said.
“The events and memories remain with me for the rest of my life. And I’ve had to do a lot to heal.”
Nowadays, Australians wanting to donate blood must meet certain requirements and criteria to ensure the receiver won’t contract any diseases.
“Any opportunity I had to have him in my life was taken from me when I really needed him.”
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