By Jonathan Jones

Growing up in the 1980's when we became aware of 'The AIDS Threat' I can recall the terrifying tv commericals that showed a tombstone falling backwards and breaking, the backdrop was dark and eerie and an ominous voice commanded "AIDS - Don't Die of Ignorance!"

I can also remember watching a film in the early 1990's called Longtime Companion and it showed the beginnings of the AIDS crisis in America which at the time was referred to as GRID (Gay-related immuno deficiency or simply the Gay Plague) so it was always assumed that this unfolding epidemic was borne out of risky sexual encounters between men and it's for this reason that I want to concentrate on someone you may or may not have heard of. Randy Shilts (later to succumb to the disease himself) mentions her in his brilliant work "And The Band Played On."

Her name was Margrethe P. Rask (better known as Grethe Rask).

She was born in the Danish town of Thisted in 1930. She studied medicine and became a physician and surgeon. She travelled to Africa and practiced in what was known then as Zaire. She set up her own hospital in a village called Abumombazi in 1972 before transferring to a Danish Red Cross Hospital in Kinshasa in 1975. It was likely in Abumombazi that she contracted HIV through dealing with exposed wounds and large amounts of blood in her daily working life.

Her initial symptoms were diarrhoea, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue and weight loss. She was given drug treatments which temporarily eased the symptoms but it wasn't long before they became considerably worse. By the time she'd taken a vacation in the Summer of 1977, she could no longer breathe and had to rely on oxygen treatments. She flew back home to Denmark where through hospital tests it was discovered she had contracted a number of opportunistic infections. Tests also showed that her T-cell count was almost non-existent, which explained why her immune system was so severely depressed.

At the time, no one knew what was causing her illness and after a series of tests and unsuccessful treatments she returned home where she was looked after by her very own 'longtime companion', her female lover, a nurse. She was called back yet again to the hospital for more tests but sadly passed away very soon after in December of 1977. She was 47 years of age.

Her blood samples were kept and as time progressed and more became known about the illness, they were tested and they returned as positive. Therefore, Grethe Rask was one of the first non-Africans to die from an AIDS-related illness. She was also gay and someone who's been kind of forgotten in all of this. Let's not forget her and all she represents. The simple fact that anyone and everyone can become HIV+ This disease does not discrimate.