00:00As the AIDS epidemic took hold in 1980s London, Jill Nolder's world, the bright lights of the
00:05West End, became a front line of activism and loss. To be honest, it just was part of my life.
00:13It was part of what happened to me. When Nolder's friends started falling ill,
00:17she immediately jumped into action, using the stage itself to raise support and fight stigma.
00:23Because it was friends and people that I loved that were sick with AIDS, as it was then,
00:27because it wasn't just HIV, it was full-blown AIDS and people were very ill. And there was a lot of
00:32stigma around and there was a lot of secrecy. And so it became part of my life and other people's
00:40lives and just to try to do something to help. Soon, Nolder helped to launch West End Cares,
00:47a grassroots effort to bring awareness and funding to those most affected. This was a tough task at
00:52the time when talking about HIV AIDS was considered to be very taboo. Still, Nolder and her friends
00:58were determined to be heard. We started to make that work in London's West End as well, because we had
01:05a sort of a crowd of people that were able to help with fundraising, putting on shows, all in West End
01:12shows. So people did cabarets, late night cabarets, late night performances. And that was a great source
01:17of fundraising. Those efforts soon connected Nolder to national organizations like the Terence Higgins
01:23Trust and the National AIDS Trust, helping to fund research and support families devastated by the
01:29epidemic. There was already a stigma against being a gay man or a gay woman. And then it became worsened
01:36by the fact that it was a fatal disease and it was infectious. So there was fear and the stigma. So
01:43that's, that's really all the steps, but which is quite a lot of, you know, fear around everything. So
01:51we tried to do the best we could. The work didn't stop there. Decades later, Nolder remains active,
01:56now supporting HIV awareness, LGBTQ plus inclusion, and elder housing through a variety of charity projects.
02:04We now work with our group if we want to, or me personally for the Terence Higgins Trust,
02:09and for any charity that we can fundraise for really, but the Terence Higgins Trust has been
02:14something I am also a patron of the Sussex Beacon, which is a hospice and care for people that struggle
02:21with HIV. And personally, I also have an interest in a charity called Tonic Housing, which aims to provide
02:32retirement accommodation for people affected with, well, not just HIV, but LGBTQ, the gay community
02:40as a whole, because as people age, there's stigmas attached to, you know, many people have said that
02:46when they are older and they go into retirement accommodation, then they feel like they go back in
02:54the closet because they're not, it's not so open and comfortable for people. While medicine has advanced,
03:00Nolder says stigma hasn't entirely faded, and education is still key.
03:05There's still research to be done, there's still talk of vaccination, but there is also education,
03:10so that people look after themselves and look after their sexual health, look after, you know,
03:15get regular checkups, know if you're HIV positive, because then you can have, you know, and they say
03:20U equals U, and detectable is untransmissible, so you can look after your health, and then you don't
03:27spread it to anybody else either. For her decades of service, Nolder was recently awarded an OBE.
03:34It's recognition she never expected, but it has renewed her commitment to the causes she's always
03:39held close. It was a shock, that, and it was an amazing day. It was an absolutely amazing experience,
03:46and when you agree to have the OBE, and it is a privilege and it is an honour, you are also agreeing
03:55to still work for your causes. Now touring on stage again, Nolder says she's hopeful that a new
04:03generation will remember the lessons of compassion and community that has defined her efforts.
04:08And I think for everybody out there that is interested, you know, it's just, it's just keep up,
04:14keep up the work we try to do, you know, because, because it'll never stop.
04:18Nolder's life has been one of empathy and action, proving that heroism sometimes starts
04:24by simply refusing to look away. For London TV, I'm Kate Medeiros.
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