Dear Mildmay supporters, every year, people around the world unite to show support for people living with and affected by HIV and to remember those who lost their lives to AIDS.
In 2020, the world’s attention has been focused by the COVID-19 pandemic on health and how pandemics affect lives and livelihoods. COVID-19 is showing once again how health is interlinked with other critical issues, such as reducing inequality, human rights, gender equality, social protection, and economic growth.
The UNAIDS theme for this year’s World AIDS Day (WAD) is ‘Global solidarity, shared responsibility’. If you would like to find out more about this and to support Mildmay with a donation, please follow this link.
Normally for WAD, many of us linked to Mildmay, along with thousands of others, participate in the Red Run in Victoria Park, Hackney, to honour the Day and to raise funds. Sadly, this was not to be in 2020. However, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, an alternative cabaret venue in South London, is reopening after the lockdown on Thursday 3rd December, and they are kindly dedicating the very first show to supporting Mildmay for WAD. We thank them and the artiste, David Hoyle, sincerely. Thanks also to Jason Reid, a former patient of Mildmay, who set this up for us. Let us hope they are allowed to open, and that the show can go on!
Later this month on Monday 14 December at 6.30 pm, Mildmay will be hosting a virtual Christmas Carol Service in lieu of our usual church service/concert. Right now, our staff and friends are busy recording songs and readings which will be compiled and available to view from 6.30 pm on the day, and we would be delighted if you could join us on your computer/tablet/phone.
You can sign up beforehand to let us know that you will be in our virtual audience. Just navigate to bit.ly/3q1goBz in your web browser and pop your name and email address on the form there.
We hope always that our Christmas events will raise some funds for all of our work but this year we are having a Christmas Appeal for our patients. It’s called Presents for Patients and quite simply, we want to buy them something nice for Christmas.
Many patients who are unable to go home for Christmas have few social connections, and Christmas can be an exceedingly difficult, lonely, and isolating time for them. To bring a little comfort this Christmas, we would like to give them Christmas presents; modest gifts and treats like toiletries or nice things to eat.
Not only are we caring for vulnerable patients with HIV, but also people who are homeless or rough sleeping - some of them are also recovering from COVID-19. The hospital is currently at full capacity and likely to stay that way, as we have a waiting list of patients to be discharged to us from NHS acute hospitals as soon as one of our 26 beds becomes available. We need your help, and so we once again call upon the generosity of our friends and supporters and ask you to give what you can to our Christmas Appeal.
We hope to bring you further updates soon on the future of the hospital - which is of course why you signed our petition in the first place - thank you again! We think we’re nearly there, but the decision still has to be made. We hope we can tell you more in our next update.