National HIV Story Trust

About National HIV Story Trust

When the AIDS crisis erupted in the 1980s, it ripped through relationships, families, friendships. It tore apart a generation, and for a long time there was little hope, for many it was simply a death sentence. Even worse was that due to prejudice and ignorance, many people who were ill were shunned and left to die alone, their carer’s unable to do anything to stop this disease. Things have changed in much of the world; people living with HIV need no longer live in fear of death, and HIV transmission can be prevented. But this crisis is not over, it is still going on in many countries, and the effects are being felt to this day by this who lived through it. But memories are fading. And so we cannot let those who have gone before, nor the lessons from their lives and their deaths, be forgotten. The National HIV Story Trust (NHST)’s mission is to make sure that the voices of those who lived through the AIDS epidemic are never lost, and that the lessons learnt in those dark times are never forgotten and the tragedies of never be allowed to be repeated. There is no extensive UK resource that covers the experiences of those who lived through the AIDS crisis. Young people do not know enough about what happened, and this will only get worse in the future. In order to preserve these voices, the NHST has filmed over 100 people impacted by HIV since the 1980s, creating the largest UK archive of its kind. The interviews include a broad spectrum of long-term survivors, health care workers, public figures and family and friends of people who died during the epidemic. What is so special and unique about this collection of interviews (beyond its scale) is the diversity of the people interviewed and the fact that so many of these stories have never previously been shared publicly. With this resource the charity aims to create a feature length documentary, education for schools, support the arts, develop projects around those ageing with HIV and so much more.

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