Profile
Professional History
The Terrence Higgins Trust - 1983 - 1988
On of the great successes of the Terrence Higgins Trust in the early days of 1984/5 was the production of information about AIDS and, as it was then known HTLV III. I was part of a team that produced a number of leaflets.These are two of the originals from 1985:
AIDS: The Facts AIDS: Facts for Gay Men
In 1985 the London Borough of Lewisham held a fair at one of its colleges. THT was asked to host a stand and promote AIDS and HIV awareness. During the fair the Mayor of Lewisham visited and I presented her with a pack of information both about AIDS and about the Terrence Higgins Trust.
The women's group produced a leaflet on Aids and Women. We launched the leaflet in Islington Town Hall with the help of Claire Raynor.
In 1986 we took our information on the London Underground. For me this had two objectives:
1. To inform the public about the existence of our services and normalise the word AIDS.
2. To show our growing band of volunteers that THT was highly visible and an organisation of which to be proud.
Over a period of about 3 months a poster appeared by the escalators and other positions in most of the London Underground Tube stations. We also produced a great many A4 and A5 posters to hand. At about the same time as the underground poster was being designed I was approached by BBC Education to contribute to their new series "The Trouble Sex." I met with the series producer Mike Weatherly to discuss the programme, one of six, that would focus on AIDS. When he asked me what I wanted from the programme I replied "A half hour advert for THT." In the end, out of a 25 minute programme, about 15 minutes was about the work of the THT.
We were asked to provide a speaker for a fringe meeting at the Liberal Party Conference. The meeting was introduced by Mr. Michael Meadowcroft, far right of the picture. I seem to remember referring to him as Michael Meacher, the then Labour Shadow health spokesman!
A part of my role as the public relations officer was to ensure the production of some leaflets and fronting the launch of them. This was the safety of people sharing a chalice at Christian mass.
