Day 14 and we were on our way to The University of Oxford, the oldest and arguably most famous stop on our Speaker Tour Adventure. The historical beauty of the city made it impossible to not do a little bit of sightseeing before we dived into the campaign: after lots of photos and souvenir purchases (mainly by Juliana!) we were warmly welcomed by the Co-President of Oxford’s Global Health Society, Charlie, and headed to the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre. The evening event, although more intimate than others, was no less powerful. Juliana and Cristian’s ability to share their stories with the same passion, sensitivity, humour and determination as they did on the first night is almost unbelievable, and proves how inspirational they are – both as people and activists. The attendees at Oxford were very engaged, and the intimacy of the event allowed the Q&A session to go into great depth, both in terms of Cristian and Juliana’s experiences but also into the objectives, practicality and next steps in the Missing Medicines campaign. Leaving on a high we jumped back on the train to London and tried to come to terms with the fact that when we woke up it would be our last day on the Speaker Tour!!!
After the short train ride to the Sunny University of Sussex we began our first speaking event on our big finale day 15! Their Stop Aids president Conrad was great and we held a well-attended event despite it being over Friday lunchtime! This was evidently down to the hard work Conrad and his StopAid’s troops had put in before we arrived – so thank you team! Juliana and Cristian were again fantastic – obviously! – and the many questions afterwards covered a broad range of issues, such as: stigma and how we can all fight against it, the current failings and successes of the international response, the impact of national cuts to the NHS on HIV support in the UK