London is to get permanent HIV and Aids memorial in Tottenham Court Rd, accessible to all and close to the hospital – opened by Princess Diana – where patients were first treated over 40 years ago.
The sculpture is designed to honour the lives of those lost to HIV and AIDS and to help fight the stigma which many survivors still face today.
It’s been more than 40 years since the UK’s first Aids unit was opened by Princess Diana in 1987, near to the former Middlesex Hospital, when she famous shook the hand of a patient without any PPE and won a place in all our hearts.
The design will be revealed later on down the line but campaigners included Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords who was among writers, MPs and survivors in favour of the memorial.
Lord Fowler said work still needed to be done with the disease carrying a stigma. ‘It will remind us that we must do everything we can to help people right now who are unnecessarily dying of HIV/AIDS. We must turn the tide on this’
The Aids crisis of the 80s in the UK was brought to life in the devastatingly powerful in Channel 4/HBO Max series It’s a Sin.