Ray ری ٹویٹ کیا
On this day 35 years ago, over 1,500 people attended the funeral of an 18-year-old boy from Indiana, United States. His pallbearers included Elton John, one of the most famous musicians in the world, and Michael Jackson. The First Lady sat in the front row. The former president wrote a tribute that ran in the national papers.
His name was Ryan White. At 13, he contracted HIV through a blood transfusion to treat his haemophilia, a blood disorder that prevents clotting. Doctors gave him six months. When he tried to go back to school, parents and teachers fought to ban him. Restaurants threw away his dishes. Church members refused to shake his hand.
He didn’t fight back. He educated. He went on national television and calmly explained how the virus actually worked. He changed more minds about the disease than any campaign or government programme at the time.
He lived five years longer than anyone expected. He passed away one month before his high school graduation.
Four months after his funeral, the United States Congress passed the Ryan White CARE Act. It became the largest federally funded programme for people living with HIV in the country’s history, and it still operates today, providing care to over 500,000 people every year.
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