Fresh off his appearance at the recent Royal wedding with Harry and Meghan, Sir Elton John is back in the news this week with word that delivering one of the most prestigious lecture in the world, the ‘Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture’ to be centered around the battle against HIV this June 8th in London.
Elton was one of the earliest activists in the war on AIDS, having founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, working tirelessly to raise money and awareness of the dreaded disease. Elton opened a lot of eyes and tore down a great deal of stigma surrounding the aliment with his friendship with teenage Ryan White, a young hemophilic from Kokomo, Indiana who had contracted AIDS through a normal blood transfusion, given months to live by his doctors. Elton befriended the 13-year-old, remaining close to Ryan until his death a few years later. In many ways Elton credits Ryan and the cause for confronting his own drug addiction and inspiring him to turn his life around. The lecture again is June 8th in London.
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