Bid to find families of men on Aids memorial quilt

A charity is trying to reach the families of five people who died in the 1990s after contracting HIV and were remembered on a memorial quilt made 25 years ago.

Liverpool charity Sahir remembered the men in its AIDS Memorial Quilts.

But it said little is known about Gary Crabtree, John McNeight and hairdresser Gerard 'Gerry' Murphy who died, aged 25, on 29 March 1993.

The other men are David Robert Brewer, known as 'Bopper', and Eddie Boyne who died in 1999. The quilts were made by friends and relatives.

All five men either came from Liverpool or died in the city.

Two of the men's families have already been in touch. Eddie Boyne's sister Cathy rang BBC Merseyside after hearing the appeal.

Sahir chief executive Simon Harris said: "These quilts have been packed away for years, but when you unfold them you realise immediately that they are not simply historical artefacts.

"They are people.

"Someone chose every photograph, every word and every stitch because they loved the person whose name is on that quilt.

"We know so little about some of these five men that, at the moment, we have little more than a name. I want to change that."

The Aids epidemic in the UK killed over 1,000 people a year between 1991 and 1996.

At its peak, in 1995, 1,731 people died.

He added: "HIV history must never become simply a list of statistics.

"These were people with lives, families, friendships and futures."

The charity has said it hopes to involve relatives and friends in its World AIDS Day commemorations on 1 December.

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