Immediately after the death of Freddie Mercury from AIDS related causes in London on 24th November 1991, the remaining
members of Queen and Jim Beach their manager took the decision to raise money and awareness about AIDS in his memory. Together
they organised the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness to launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust to distribute
the monies raised from this concert.
Since 1992 the Mercury Phoenix Trust have been responsible for donating more
than £7 million in the fight against AIDS making over 600 grants to charities worldwide. Applications for grants have come
in from many countries around the world and collaboration has been realised with groups as far removed as the World Health
Organisation to grass-root organisations run partly by voluntary workers in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Nepal, India
and South America. The Trust is following the latest developments in drug therapies and adapting funding policy to the changing
needs of those affected by HIV/AIDS.
More information about HIV/AIDS worldwide can be obtained from the World Health
Organisation web site UNAIDS
www.unaids.org, in the UK from the National AIDS Trust
www.nat.org.uk and those interested in the latest developments on finding a vaccination against HIV infection should check out the web of
the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative at
www.iavi.org. A very good source of general information is the
www.aidsmap.com.
