Terrence Higgins Trust Cymru

How did the charity get its name?

Terry Higgins was one of the first people in the UK to die with AIDS. He died aged 37, on 4 July 1982 in St Thomas' Hospital, London. By naming the Trust after Terry, the founder members – his partner and friends – hoped to personalise and humanise AIDS in a very public way.

When was the charity set up?

In 1982, after Terry’s death, his partner Rupert Whitaker and his friends Martyn Butler, Tony Calvert, Len Robinson and Chris Peel met to discuss what could be done. Terry Higgins Trust was subsequently set up by Martyn Butler and Rupert Whitaker with the intention of preventing others from having to suffer as Terry had. It focused on raising funds for research and awareness of the illness that was then called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID).

The following year, a public meeting about GRID was organised by London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and the Terry Higgins Trust at which a small group of committed volunteers from a range of backgrounds came together. This included Tony Whitehead, who went on to become the Trust’s first chief executive.

In August 1983, the Trust was reborn as a formal organisation, Terrence Higgins Trust, with a constitution and a bank account. By November it was a limited company with a Board of Directors, and by January 1984 had gained charitable status. It provided direct services immediately, including buddying/home-help, counselling, drug- and sex-education.

Terrence Higgins Trust was the first charity in the UK to be set up in response to the HIV epidemic and has been at the forefront of the fight against HIV and AIDS ever since.