image copyrightHealth Secretary Norman Fowler in front of an "Aids Don't Die Of Ignorance" poster which was part of the government's warning campaign against the disease in 1986
The group chose to have it placed near the site of the ward where the UK's first HIV/Aids patients were treated.Princess Diana shook the hand of a man suffering with the illnessShe did so without gloves, publicly challenging the notion that HIV/Aids was passed from person to person by touch.Many families of loved ones who died of the virus joined the campaign after their views changed over the years, Aids Memory UK said.
Lord Fowler, the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, was among writers, MPs and survivors who backed the campaign."It will remind us that we must do everything we can to help people right now who are unnecessarily dying of HIV/AIDS. We must turn the tide on this," he said. Campaigner Ash Kotak said the memorial would be a reminder that "the fight to end Aids worldwide continues"."There is still so much abuse towards people living with HIV despite those on with sustained, working medication cannot pass on the virus to anyone else," he added.
40 years after the virus started showing up.