George Hodson
At 74, queer artist George has lived with HIV since 1985 and has survived cancer no less than 4 times. After a successful career as a creative director in advertising he is now an award winning breeder and exhibitor of Griffon Bruxellois.
UPDATE: George sadly passed away in June 2023. A pioneer of the first 1972 Pride march, he was the UK’s 2nd longest HIV survivor. In a new film Legendary Children [All of Them Queer] George introduces the section on HIV/AIDS and the need for the young not to take for granted the rights they have today.
George had tea with the late Princess Diana at The London Lighthouse hospice in the 1990s. A longstanding friend of Jonathan Blake, officially the UK’s longest surviving person with HIV, George was on the first 1972 UK Pride march, and came back to make the 50th march in 2022, all the way on foot, with a walking stick, stoma, and extremely painful hernia, his two adorable Griffon dogs on the lead.
What does your identity mean to you?
Being an AIDS survivor, and indeed thriver, is crucial to my present identity but like each of us I have a myriad of semi identities formed from a full life experiences that make up my unique and rather beautiful personal jigsaw.