I shall not be moved
Canary Islands as an actor, a tour guide, a barman. He was frequently homeless. "I slept in parks. I
often had sex with men I did not like to get something warm in my stomach."
He came to the UK as an illegal immigrant in 1987.
He was diagnosed with HIV almost as soon as he arrived in London. Characteristically,
he joined the newly-diagnosed support group at the London Lighthouse that
day, and ended up running it.
But he was also running from demons. He emerged from his homeless years
an alcoholic. He joined AA but, he says: "I
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thought I could solve all my problems with my own intelligence. I thought
God was my subordinate."
He approached HIV treatment with the same independence, rejecting AZT,
sceptical of antivirals, trying every alternative therapy. He trained
as a Reiki practitioner, as an aromatherapist, as a masseur.
It wasn't until he went back to Spain for a home visit in 1997 that Elfrid
finally encountered something that forced him to rely on others instead
of himself.
"It started as travel sickness. Then I stopped being able to read
things." He went rapidly downhill and just about got back to his
flat in east London.
"I went to the hospital. They were baffled. Nothing showed up on tests." By
