To mark World AIDS Day, our friends at Positive East have kindly lent us some very special quilts from their archives, made by people who lost loved ones during the height of the AIDS pandemic. You can see the display at our Hanbury Street agency window.

“The UK AIDS Memorial Quilt is a precious artifact. Each of the panels commemorates lives lost to the AIDS epidemic during the 1980s and ’90s,” says Positive East. “It is a public naming of the names of loved ones lost, and a memorial for the many who died and went unnamed too.

“The UK quilt is part of an international movement that sought to raise awareness of the impact of the AIDS epidemic and ensure that these lives would never be forgotten. It is both a shout of protest at the needless loss of life, and a celebration of the lives commemorated. It is a reminder that HIV is still with us and that lives are still lost. It is a call to action to do all we can to eradicate this disease completely.”