Date: 1800-2000 Thursday 21 June 2012

Venue: House of Lords, London
 

On 21 June 2012 BHIVA held an Evening Reception at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Fowler, our patron, to commend and showcase the current work of the British HIV Association (BHIVA).

The event was wonderfully well supported and brought together members of Parliament, the House of Lords and affiliated associations. In addition, representatives from community and patient groups and other advocacy organisations were in attendance at the event. Although numbers at the event were somewhat limited, it was possible to welcome a number of members of BHIVA to the Evening Reception, including several Executive Committee members.

During the Reception there were some short speeches which were conducted by Baroness D'Souza (Lord Speaker), Lord Fowler (BHIVA Patron), Professor Jane Anderson (Chair of BHIVA), Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan (BHIVA Research Award Winner) and Stephen Fry (advocate of BHIVA). These highlighted the urgent need to keep HIV on the public agenda and for BHIVA to continue to canvas those leading on the restructuring of NHS services to ensure the best possible provision and care for people living with HIV in the UK. Professor Anderson reminded those in attendance of BHIVA's commitment to this aim by announcing that BHIVA will be endeavouring in the months ahead to raising a one million pound fund for HIV research initiatives.

In light of this, BHIVA hopes to build on the overwhelming success of the event with the launch of a fundraising effort for the BHIVA Research Programme later this year.