Lady Diana and how she raised awareness for AIDS patients

Gerry, Lady Diana, there's a lot said about her. She did a lot of different things. Some people have, you know, differing opinions, but you've met her once. I have met her more than once, I have to confess, with great joy and I found that she was a very gentle lady. The very first time I met her I thought she was making herself feel better at the expense of a sick person. I don't know, maybe she was, it was for her personal benefit, but once in conversation with her, she was quite knowledgeable and a well-informed person regarding certain medical issues and certain causes that she was associated with. What she did for the HIV and AIDS community is unsurpassable that nobody else, and she broke down the barriers and the stigma that... Shaking hands with a person with AIDS. Shaking hands with a person with AIDS in New York back in 1987 and taking her gloves off to do it as well. And then, you know, she used to regularly visit several of the AIDS wards of London hospitals out of hours, without an entourage, without paparazzi, without photographers. And she was very much welcomed in the process. But, you know, she gave HIV a profile on the world stage. The stigma, it's easy to forget the stigma. Oh, it's very, very easy to forget the stigma. In the early days of it, people were stigmatised, people were disenfranchised and disowned by their families, lost their jobs, it was impossible to get insurance. When a person was diagnosed with HIV from the early 80s up until the mid 90s, you couldn't apply for a mortgage. There were very trying times and she was somewhat of a saviour at that period of time.