Issue 30 | Winter 2021
We are Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV and Sexual Health charity and biggest voluntary sector provider of HIV and sexual health services in the UK, running services out of local centres across Great Britain.
We’ve supported people living with HIV since the 1980s.
Our name is in memory of Terry Higgins, one of the first people in the UK to die of an AIDS-related illness back in 1982. Shortly after his death, Terry’s partner and friends formed a charity in his name in response to the HIV epidemic.
Everything we do is in his name — including shouting about the progress we’ve made in the fight against HIV since the 1980s. Someone living with HIV and on effective treatment can’t pass it on and can expect to live just as long as anyone else. We’ve come so far in the fight against HIV but there is still so much work to be done.
Sadly, the public’s knowledge and awareness of HIV hasn’t caught up with the medical advancements. Over half of UK adults would feel uncomfortable kissing someone living with HIV, despite the virus never being passed on in that way. Negative attitudes towards people living with HIV and stigma continue to halt progress: they’re a big part of why people living with HIV are twice as likely to have depression or anxiety than the general population.
We want to see a world where people with HIV live healthy lives free from stigma and discrimination, and good sexual health is a right and a reality for all.
Today, we’re working towards ending new cases of HIV in the UK by 2030. Together we can join in solidarity with people living with HIV today and make history by becoming the first country in the world to end HIV transmissions.
In July, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt partnership, in conjunction with Fast Track Cities London, will be curating the largest display of the UK AIDS Quilts since the 1990s.
Honouring those UK lives lost to AIDS, and a reminder that HIV is still with us today, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display on the first two weekends of July at Acorn House, Gray’s Inn Rd, Kings Cross St Pancras, London.
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