He died in my arms

A powerful oral history of the nurses whose dedication and compassion transformed HIV care in the UK.

With the sudden arrival of AIDS in the UK, healthcare workers confronted a new, deadly and highly stigmatised disease. They had little prior knowledge but deep moral resolve. This book tells their story in their words.

The early response to AIDS was shaped by media fearmongering, conservative moralism and homophobia. Against this, nurses and midwives fought for the dignity, rights and autonomy of their patients, mostly young gay men and drug users marginalised by society and facing profound discrimination. Working alongside activists and patients, they tore down the old traditions of nursing and did things differently.

Featuring the real voices of twenty-seven nurses, He died in my arms takes the reader inside the wards and hospices of the 1980s and 1990s, revealing the extraordinary truth of nursing in the AIDS era. It was an experience that profoundly changed the nurses who went through it. It would change nursing forever.