But stigma was not the only reason it didn’t have Aids or HIV in its title the terms hadn’t been invented at the time Higgins died. By naming it after a person, the founders of THT hoped to humanise the deadly epidemic. Higgins was the first named person in the UK to die of an Aids-related illness, on 4 July 1982. That was how Whitaker wanted it at the time, he says, but he has agreed to talk openly about him today. The name Terrence Higgins is recognised throughout the UK today, but little is known about the man.