A.I.D.S./H.I.V.
Drugs
=A.Z.T.
A.Z.T.
was patented by Burroughs Wellcome & Company.
Burroughs
Wellcome became part of GlaxoSmithKline.
Website:
www.gsk.com/en-gb/behind-the-science/40-years-and-counting-the-fight-against-hiv
My Night With Reg
Kevin
Elyot's (n Lee) (1951-2014) breakthrough play was My Night With Reg
(1984). It opened in the Theatre Upstairs at The Royal Court Theatre,
transferred to the West End, and won two Olivier Awards. The piece is about a
circle of friends, most of whom have slept with Reg, who had since died of
A.I.D.S.. It is a nostalgic, tender tale that has a large element of humour.
Elyot was a playwright whose principal interests were the longing for love and
remembrance of love lost.
Location:
The Theatre Upstairs, The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square,
SW1W 8AS (purple, red)
Organisations
56
Dean Street
56 Dean
Street is a sexual health clinic. It played a leading role in encouraging the
uptake of the PReP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a daily pill that is able to
prevent H.I.V. contraction. Its widespread use led to a fall in new cases of
the condition.
The
Food Chain
The
Food Chain is a support organisation that supplies people with H.I.V. with
nutritious food. It was set up in 1988.
Location:
Acorn House, 314-320 Gray's Inn Road, WC1X 8DP
Website:
http://foodchain.com
Terrence
Higgins Trust
Terrence
Higgins (1945-1982) was a native of rural South-West Wales. He found himself by
moving to London, where he worked a variety of jobs, including being a d.j.. As
such, he developed enough of a reputation to be invited to work in clubs in
both Europe and the United States.
In 1982
Terrence Higgins died in St Thomas's Hospital of pneumonia and neural
toxoplasmosis. However, the underlying reason for his demise was that he was
vulnerable to these conditions was that he was one of the U.K.'s first
instances of A.I.D.S.. His friends and his partner Rupert Whitaker felt the
need to produce something positive from their loss. They set up the Trust in
order to try to generate awareness about what was happening.
Location:
St Thomas's Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7EH
Website:
www.tht.org.uk
The
Elton John A.I.D.S. Foundation
Website:
www.eltonjohnaidsfoundation.org
The
London Lighthouse
The
London Lighthouse opened in 1988.
During
the second half of the 1990s London Lighthouse shifted its focus from being a
hospice towards supporting people who had HIV for life. This adjustment led to
Susie Parsons (1950-2015), the organisation's chief executive, being the
subject of considerable adverse comment from some of those had been active
during its early years.
Location:
The London Lighthouse, 111-117 Lancaster Road, W11 1QT. Now The Museum of Brands, Packaging &
Advertising. (blue, turquoise)
The
London Patient
Adam
Castillejo developed a lymphoma while being treated for A.I.D.S.. He was cured
of H.I.V. through a stem cell transplant that inserted uninfectable cells. The
story became public in 2019.
Berlin
Patient. Dr Ravi Gupta.
National
A.I.D.S. Trust
Website:
www.nat.org.uk
Positively
U.K.
Website:
https://positivelyuk.org
Physicians
Charles
Farthing
In 1982
Charles Farthing (1953-2014) was a New Zealander who was working as a
dermatologist at St Stephen's Hospital (subsequently Chelsea & Westminster
Hospital) on the Fulham Road. He also worked as a volunteer in a S.T.D. clinic
in a poor neighbourhood. He noticed how an unusually high number of patients
had rare skin diseases. This prompted to reader more deeply in the medical
literature. As a result, he realised that he might be treating people who had
H.I.V.. As a result, he established the UK's first dedicated A.I.D.S. clinic at
St Stephens and initiated a research programme. Twenty people were diagnosed
with H.I.V. in 1985, 1000 two years later. Dr Farthing played an important role
in persuading the Conservative government of the day to appreciate the danger
that was posed. In 1988 he moved to work in the United States. By then,
A.I.D.S. was well on the way to being regarded as a disease and its sufferers
as people who should be viewed with compassion.
Location:
St Stephen
s Hospital, 252 Fulham Road, SW10 9NA (orange, purple)
The Mildmay Mission Hospital
The Rev
William Pennefather was the Vicar of St Jude's Mildmay Park. He promoted a
number of projects that sought to promote both the spiritual and the physical
well-being of his parishioners. In 1866 there was an outbreak of cholera in the
notorious Old Nichol. His wife Catherine trained two of the church's deaconess
to care for the sick and their dependents.
The
first Mildmay Mission Hospital opened in a disused warehouse in Cabbage Court
(now Little Bacon Street) off Bethnal Green Road. It had 27 beds. In 1892 the
institution transferred to a purpose-built building. In 1948 the Hospital
became part of the N.H.S.. In 1982 it was closed on the grounds that it was
regarded as being uneconomic because it had less than 200 beds. However, its
trustees, under the leadership of Helen Taylor-Thompson (1924-2020) sought to
ensure its survival.
In 1988
the Mildmay was reopened as a hospice in order to receive Aids patients that
were passed onto it by hospitals that could no longer cope with them.
Initially, the ambulance crews who brought them wore chemical hazard suits.
Location:
19 Tabernacle Gardens, E2 7DZ
Website:
www.mildmay.org
Section 28
In 1988
the Conservative Prime Minster Margaret Thatch announced Section 28 of the
Local Government of 1988. On her part it was a highly cynical move. It her
private capacity she was known to be liberal on the issues of divorce and
abortion and in her daily life many of the people who were around her were gay.
David
Backhouse 2024