Worthing charity ambassador plans 24-hour dance marathon for Terrence Higgins Trust

Donna has lived in the Worthing area for many years and chose March 31 for her non-stop dance event to raise money and awareness for the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity.

She explained: "I recently found out that March 31, 2023, is synonymous with dance marathons and that the first one was actually held 100 years ago this year. With that in mind, I plan to dance non stop from 9pm on March 31 to 9pm on April 1. I'm putting together a playlist at the moment of nearly 40 songs, most of them classic dance tunes to get me motivated and keep me going.

"I recently applied and became a fundraising ambassador for the Terrence Higgins Trust and I have been sharing updates about the charity and the event on my social media. I have found that a lot of people still don't have any more than a basic knowledge or outdated misconceptions about HIV and AIDS and I really wanted to help change that.

"I've had an interest in the subject for many years and I've been involved in running awareness campaigns and public surveys in the past. I took the role of fundraising ambassador for the Terrence Higgins Trust because they are trailblazers, helping those living with HIV and AIDS and their families, right from the start, more than 40 years ago. This was so important back then, as often, the stigma of a positive diagnosis meant that people were ostracised by, or withholding the truth from their loved ones. Without this charity, more people would have been alone.

"Awareness has been recently raised by wonderful shows such as It's A Sin, storylines in soap operas and celebrities talking about their positive status. Times, attitudes and medicine itself have changed a lot since the 1980s but there are still gaps in people's knowledge as a lot of people still assume it is something that affects other people when the truth is, anyone can get it, men, women and children it doesn’t discriminate.

"I’m hoping that by doing this challenge, which will be fun but is also quite daunting, I can get people talking and donating and that this will help the charity to reach its goals of a future where there are no new cases of HIV, where people living with HIV get the support they need and there is good sexual health for all. People are not nessicarlty aware that in the UK, this could be as early as 2030."

Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/donna-edmends3 to make a donation. Visit www.tht.org.uk for more information about the charity.