Stop AIDS Activists from across the country gathered inLondonyesterday to take part in the Day of Action 2012!!
We kicked off the day in style by taking a 45 minute coach ride out of London to Brentford, home of the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKlein!
Loaded with clocks of all sizes (including a grandfather clock complete with pill pendulum!) 
we arrived at GSK to tell them it was about TIME they joined the Patent Pool (get it?!) GSK/ViiV Healthcare have been in negotiations with the Medicines Patent Pool for over a year now, and are still yet to make a decision.
Our aim was to remind them that the clock is ticking on people’s lives. People living with HIV in developing countries need access to treatment; there is no time to waste. Our demands were clear: All HIV drugs, all developing countries and all people with equal access.
As activists chanted “GSK don’t delay, join the patent pool today!”, representatives from the pharmaceutical company looked on and took note. When our demonstration came to an end, 4 Stop AIDS Activists were invited inside to discuss our demands in detail with the Director of Access and Government Affairs, Scott Purdon.
The remaining activists headed back into centralLondonto take part in stage 2 of the day; street campaigning! We took our message of access to HIV medicines to the streets in a bid to inform and engage the public. And we certainly succeeded! More on this exciting campaign to come…
The final part of the day saw activists head into the Houses of Parliament for a mass lobby
Whilst fellow activists lobbied their MPs, some of us got the chance to go inside the House of Commons to watch MPs battle it out over the NHS reforms- as you can imagine it got pretty heated!
After a jam-packed day of mass action, meetings, street campaigning and MP lobbying, we headed for a well deserved drinks and recapped our highlights of the day. Special prizes were awarded for outstanding contributions; including a prize for lobbying an MP whilst simultaneously administering first aid at the roadside (well done Dr Julia!) a prize for giving GSK/ViiV hell at a private meeting (James, Natalie and Lindsay- legends!), and a prize for the most MPs lobbied (woop woop Edinburgh!) Of course the prize for the best navy boy went to our very own Diarmaid.
A massive thank you to all who came to this year’s Day of Action- your enthusiasm and energy made the day a huge success!
Watch this space for more campaigns, more stunts, and more Stop AIDS activism!