Forty-four years ago, Rupert Whitaker received a phone call at Durham University telling him to return to London to see his partner, Terry Higgins, before he died. He rushed back, but was left in a waiting room just off the ward as Terry passed away. Higgins would become the first named person in the UK to die of an Aids-related illness.
That same year, in 1982, Whitaker, alongside friend Martyn Butler, founded the UK’s first charity set up in response to HIV and Aids, now known as Terrence Higgins Trust, with a mission to raise funds for research and prevent others from suffering as Terry had.
