The AIDS Memorial Quilts are beautiful, emotional and personal tributes to those lost in the earliest days of the HIV epidemic to ensure they are never forgotten. But until now, there was no quilt panel for Terry Higgins, the first named person to die of an AIDS-related illness in the UK on 4 July, 1982.

As part of a year’s worth of celebration to mark 40 years since Terry's death, we worked with The Quilters’ Guild to create a brand new eight-panel memorial quilt in his name.

There are eight magnificent panels, representing different elements of Terry’s life. Each panel features part of our Terrence Higgins Trust heart emblem, which is in our logo and centres love, care and compassion in all that we do. When the panels are joined together you can see the heart in full. 

With this quilt we remember Terry, celebrate his legacy and aim to engage as many people as possible in where we are today with the opportunity to end new HIV cases in the UK by 2030.

The project was overseen by our co-founders Rupert Whitaker OBE and Martyn Butler OBE, alongside Terry’s close friends Linda and Maxine, who worked closely with passionate quilters from across the country to let us all get to know Terry better.

Read a guided tour of the quilt below. Underneath that, you can view the eight panels individually and find out more about them and their designers.

Zoom in on a high-definition image of the quilt.