What sort of a guy was Terry?
"He was always even tempered
and cool. Nothing would ruffle his feathers and he had a very acerbic
sense of humour. He didn't give a shit what other people thought. He even
daubed hammer and sickle motifs all over a ship to get out of the Royal
Navy.
"The idea of the Trust in the early days was to spread awareness
that this disease existed and to try to stop it spreading. We did pamphlets
and fundraising in gay pubs and clubs. It was all very
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Terry Higgins
confusing at that time and medical opinion was unclear what was going
on. People were getting ill and dying very quickly and the press were
calling it 'Gay Cancer'.
"I went off to the States to do a PhD in immunology and specialised
in how HIV affects behaviour. I gave myself an HIV test in the lab in
Boston in 1984, which was positive, so I suppose I'm one of the longest
survivors. I don't know why I've lived so long. Virtually everyone from
those early days has gone."
What do you think Terry Higgins would have thought of THT?
"I think he would have found it very funny but would have respected
the Trust for all they've done. THT has been an incredibly effective model
for how to respond to a major health crisis. It serves such diverse communities
- gay men and Africans, whom, you would have thought, would hate each
other."
Simon Watney was one of the early activists at THT
in the early 1980s. He is an art historian but has written several books
on Aids, including 'Policing Desire' in 1986 and 'Imagined
