LGBT History Month 2024 - Under The Scope With Paul Fairweather

I remember in the earliest days of the epidemic, there was no treatment for HIV. Friends of mine who were HIV positive developed AIDS and died.

Then, the earliest drugs like AZT came along but these had awful side-effects and weren’t very effective. I had friends who had to stop taking these drugs because they made them so ill.

Thankfully HIV medication today is completely effective and easy to take. People living with HIV can take just one tablet a day and see their HIV consultant every six months for a check-up.

In the 1980s, as a member of Manchester AIDSline which later became George House Trust, I attended meetings at the old Monsall Hospital. We met with HIV consultants to talk about the importance of working and consulting with people living with HIV.

There were many heated debates about the best way forward, but it was so important that we were seen and heard at these meetings.

It was also through the activities of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) that HIV activists put pressure on the medical profession to change their policies and procedures and fast-track new treatments for HIV.

There was an ACT UP group in Manchester who organised a range of campaigns. These included throwing condoms over the wall of Strangeways Prison because the prison refused to give them to prisoners and picketing the Regional Health Authority to increase funding to HIV support and advocacy groups.

I believe that our HIV activism fundamentally changed the relationship between the medical profession and patients. A mutual, respectful relationship is now the blueprint for how consultants should work with patients experiencing HIV and indeed any medical condition.  

Paul Fairweather, Positive Speaker Development Worker at George House Trust 

1 February 2024