Elton John Receives Hero Award From U.K. Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS, Says He is ‘Lucky’ Not to be Infected
Singer Elton John on Wednesday received the first Hero Award from the U.K. Coalition of People Living with HIV and AIDS for the "outstanding contribution" his foundation has made to the fight against AIDS, the Express reports. Stephen Bitti, UKC CEO, said that the Elton John AIDS Foundation "sets an admirable lead to others at a time when more people in the U.K. and worldwide are affected by HIV than ever before." At the London ceremony, John said that as a gay man who led a "flamboyant" life, he was "very lucky" not to have HIV and credited the death of U.S. teenager Ryan White with changing his habits. "It was a time in my life when I wasn't behaving very well. I played at [White's] funeral and I looked like a 90-year-old man. That was when I decided to clean up my act. ... My concern nowadays is that young people think they are invulnerable, but they're not," John said. He added that he "accept[ed] the Hero Award with gratitude, but more importantly in the acknowledgement of the 30,000 [HIV-]positive people here in the U.K. today" (Guyoncourt, Express, 1/10).
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