Content
2020
Text
- We launch our major report The State of the Nation setting out the challenges facing the nation's sexual health, with services under-funded and over-burdened.
- We expand our online services and support channels in response to the coronavirus outbreak, with more free counselling for people living with HIV, online events, HIV self tests and condoms by post.
- We publish advice by Dr Michael Brady not to hook up for sex during COVID-19 lockdown, and on how to manage the risks of COVID-19 if you do have sex.
- Our head office in London moves to new premises on Caledonian Road, close to our previous address in King's Cross.
- Gareth Thomas launches the Tackle HIV campaign, for which we're the charity partner, to help address stigma associated with HIV. He also becomes a patron of Terrence Higgins Trust.
- We set up new sexual health services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
- As part of Black History Month, we launch our PrEP Protects campaign to ensure Black African people aren't left behind in the fight against HIV.
- We launch My Community Forum, a dedicated online space to meet others living with HIV, which replaces our myHIV forum set up in 2011.
- After further delays, PrEP becomes available free and uncapped on the NHS in England from sexual health clinics, starting in October. It's also now available through sexual health clinics in Scotland and Wales.
- On World AIDS Day we highlight the need for more women to participate in routing testing for HIV. We also launch a COVID-safe remembrance hub online to remember those lost to the HIV epidemic.
- The HIV Commission's recommendations to end HIV transmissions by 2030 are backed by Government and the opposition.
- Our refreshed and hugely expanded information on trans-specific sexual health launches online.
2021
Text
- We successfully lobby to give people living with HIV the option to access the COVID-19 vaccine through their HIV clinic.
- The UK Government announces an independent review into compensation for those infected and affected as part of the Contaminated Blood Scandal.
- It's A Sin, the Channel 4 series about the AIDS epidemic set in the 1980s and 1990s, is broadcast.
- National HIV Testing Week, postponed from 2020, is hugely sucessful with a record-breaking number of HIV postal tests distributed.
- New eligibility rules for blood donation come into force in June with a much-needed move to more individualised risk assessment, allowing more gay and bisexual men to safely donate blood in the UK.
- Philip Normal's T-shirts inspired by It's A Sin raise £500,000 for our life-changing work.
- Lord Chris Smith, the first HIV positive MP, joins a wide variety of people to appear on posters as part of our stigma-busting Life Really Changes campaign.
- We mark Black History Month by celebrating our Black staff, volunteers and allies and the impact they have in addressing HIV in the UK.
- We win at the Proud Scotland Awards for our work in Scotland during COVID-19 lockdowns.
- We successfully campaign for the UK Government to change the rules that predominately impacted Black people of African heritage from donating blood and plasma.
- Through our lobbying efforts we secure a Government commitment of £20 million for opt-out HIV testing in England. When the Department of Health and Social Care’s HIV Action Plan is launched, it includes a recommendation-by-recommendation response to the HIV Commission's (co-founded by us).
- We work with a member of the Armed Forces to secure historic change in policy: (a) ending the ban on people living with HIV entering the forces, (b) ending the ban on people who are on PrEP entering the forces, (c) ending the ‘limited medically deployable’ status faced by serving personnel living with HIV, and (d) getting a commitment by the Ministry of Defence for greater investment in HIV prevention services for military personnel.
- We launch our Principles for Fair Compensation for those impacted by HIV through contaminated NHS blood products in the 1980s. It is submitted to Infected Blood Compensation Framework Study led by Sir Robert Francis QC.
2022
Text
- We secure a public-facing campaign by NHS Blood and Transplant to raise awareness about the rule changes for Black donors and encourage more donors to come forward.
- We launch Wales’ first PrEP promotion campaign, along with the Welsh Government. The campaign is fully bilingual.
- With LGBT+ and HIV sector partners, we lead the protest at the Government’s refusal to legislate for a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban and pull out of the UK-Government hosted ‘Safe To Be Me’ global LGBT conference. The conference is cancelled in the following days.
- At the start of April, opt-out HIV testing becomes routine at A&E departments in London, Brighton and Manchester.
- We launch our new Together We Can strategy, setting out our mission over the next three years.
- Welsh First Minister launches the draft HIV Action Plan for Wales at a Terrence Higgins Trust event marking 40 years of HIV and unveiling a portrait of Terry Higgins.
- OBEs for Terrence Higgins Trust co-founders Rupert Whitaker and Martyn Butler.
- Discriminatory bans lifted on joining armed forces and serving as a commercial pilot while living with HIV.
- Our archive is made available to the public at the Bishopsgate Institute.
- Mpox – previously known as monkeypox – outbreak in the UK hits gay and bi men, lacklustre government response leads to community dissent, protests and eventually inaction means Terrence Higgins Trust withdraws from government coordinating bodies.
- Victims of contaminated blood scandal to be given £100,000 compensation.
- 40th anniversary special memorial service for all those who have died of AIDS related illnesses in the St Andrew’s Chapel at Southwark Cathedral.
- The Birmingham AIDS & HIV Memorial – ‘The Ribbons’ – unveiled.
- New Year Honours for Chief Executive Ian Green and Lieutenant Commander Oliver Brown as a result of their work to tackle HIV stigma.
2023
Text
- EastEnders character to be diagnosed with HIV 30 years after Mark Fowler storyline.
- In March, Welsh Government launches its HIV Action Plan for Wales 2023-26, with considerable amendments after Terrence Higgins Trust campaign and the involvement of people living with HIV.
- Richard Angell starts as new Chief Executive following Ian Green OBE's seven year tenure.
- Thousands take to the streets for Fighting HIV Stigma march.
- Home hepatitis C tests available for free from the NHS.
- New Terry Higgins portrait unveiled by National Portrait Gallery.
- Mystery shopper research reveals half denied sexual health appointment.
- Terry Higgins Memorial Quilt revealed at The Festival of Quilts.
- In October, 18 months after funding becomes available, Salford joins the highly successful opt-out HIV test programme as a very high prevalence areas.
- Terry Higgins podcast hosted by Sam Smith wins two awards.
- First TV ad on HIV since ‘tombstones’ 40 years ago set to tackle attitudes stuck in the 1980s.
- Health Secretary Victoria Atkins MP announces 12 months funding for the extension of opt-out HIV and hepatitis testing to another 47 A&E departments at World AIDS Day event, following Terrence Higgins Trust campaign.
- Scottish Government announces opt-out testing pilots in A&Es.
- Topic Modeling for Terrence Higgins Trust myHIV Forum Posts Analysis completed by Health Economics Unit - video, blog post, presentation, abstract poster.
- City of London Freedom honours for key HIV charity figures.
- UK AIDS Memorial Quilt now available online.
2024
Text
- DVLA removes ban on ‘driving with AIDS’ and updates its HIV guidance.
- In March, the Scottish Government finally publishes its plan to end HIV transmissions by 2030.
- Our Bridge to 2030 Garden opens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
- Infected Blood Inquiry Final Report published and government responds with official apology, key commitments on compensation and new legislation.
- Following a campaign from Terrence Higgins Trust and a joint sector key asks document, every major political party commits to ending new cases of HIV by 2030 and new action plan to do it.
- Chief executive Richard Angell awarded an OBE for ‘services to charity’.
- At the Terrence Higgins Trust organised HIV Prevention England conference, the new Public Health Minister announced that work on the HIV Action Plan for 2025-28 has commenced and will be launched in Summer 2025. Two months later, Getting On Track is launched making clear the HIV voluntary sector’s demands for the new plan.
- In September, after pressure from Terrence Higgins Trust, the Government announced a routine rollout of the mpox vaccine and ordered 150,000 additional doses to be delivered through sexual health services for people who need them.
- In her first budget Chancellor Rachel Reeves includes £11.8bn of funding for Infected Blood Compensation.
- At the first World AIDS Day event in Downing Street for 17 years, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced £27 million of funding to extend opt-out testing across 81 emergency departments in England and to fund 9 addition A&Es to start the highly successful programme.
- In a global first, as a result of our campaign, the UK Health Security Agency amended its reporting on the UNAIDS ‘95-95-95' targets to better account for the number of people diagnosed with HIV who are not receiving care.