Liverpool’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity has paid tribute to the first named person in the UK to die from AIDS-related illnesses on the anniversary of his death.
Sahir House has remembered the life of Terry Higgins, the man who inspired the UK’s best-known HIV charity - Terrence Higgins Trust - just over four decades after he died.
On 4 July 1982, 41 years ago today, Terry Higgins was amongst the first to die of an AIDS-related illness. Thanks to the bravery of his partner he was the first to be named. Terry was just 37 years old when he died - at a time when no one could comprehend the torrent of pain, the AIDS epidemic was about to unleash.
READ MORE: Liverpool ECHO's Rainbow list to recognise LGBTQIA+ community members making a difference
From their grief and anger, Terry’s friends, in their full activist spirit, started Terrence Higgins Trust with a mission to educate, inform, and be there for everyone living with the virus.
Today, years later since their inception, the group is tantalizing close to achieving a core goal of theirs - to end new transmission of HIV by 2030 - a goal which is fully supported by Sahir House.
Sahir House’s CEO, Ant Hopkinson, told the ECHO: “Today, as we mark the anniversary of Terry's passing, I implore our community and allies to not forget the importance of those who have gone before us in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
“I would ask our communities to not become complacent and squander our progress towards ending new transmissions of HIV and significantly reducing HIV-related stigma across the Liverpool City Region.
“There is still so much work to do, but together we can end new cases of HIV by 2030, and better support people living with HIV and impacted by poor sexual health.
"Charities like the Terrence Higgins Trust and Merseyside’s home-grown LGBTQ+ charity - Sahir House, need your donations, support and involvement to continue our good work.”
Terrence Higgins Trust was set up by Terry’s partner and friends as they hoped to “personalise and humanise AIDS in a very public way”.
After Terry’s death at a hospital in London, his partner Rupert Whitaker and friends Martyn Butler, Tony Calvert, Len Robinson and Chris Peel met to discuss what could be done.
The Terry Higgins Trust was subsequently set up by Martyn Butler and Rupert Whitaker with the intention of preventing others from having to suffer as Terry had. It focused on raising funds for research and awareness of the illness that was then called 'Gay-Related Immune Deficiency' (GRID).
The following year, 1983, a public meeting about GRID was organised by the London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and the Terry Higgins Trust at which a small group of committed volunteers from a range of backgrounds came together.
This included Tony Whitehead, who went on to become the first chair of the trust's steering committee. In August of the same year, the trust was reborn as a formal organisation with a constitution and a bank account and by the following January, the trust had gained charitable status.
The group provided direct services immediately, including buddying/home-help, counselling, drug education and sex education.
The trust became the first charity in the UK to be set up in response to the HIV epidemic and has been at the forefront of the fight ever since.
