Journalism is very, very strange – how a chance meeting led to a story going viral + a major BBC film that airs tonight. 3 yrs ago I met a man called @Greg0wen at a tiny gathering of activists. He had the energy of someone who’d either self-destruct or do something incredible. 1/
2/ We talked about PrEP, the drug that prevents HIV. I started to report on PrEP shortly after, at a time when other reporters weren’t. No one really knew much about it. The NHS didn’t provide it. But it seemed to offer a remarkable opportunity to control the virus.
3/ Anyway. In late 2015, Greg set up a website called IWantPrEPNow, providing a gateway between cheap manufacturers of the drug, based in Asia, and people in Britain who wanted to access it. He seemed both wildly determined and a bit like he was making it up as he went along.
4/ This was because he absolutely was. I continued reporting on PrEP, and the legal fight that then ensued in 2016 to get the NHS to provide it. I would talk to Greg at the meetings of HIV organisations all coming together to support this fight.
5/ I would see Greg’s website and media presence grow. He was enabling more and more people, particularly gay men, to access PrEP. I was also quite worried about him. He seemed to be going through a lot, while working endlessly.
6/ I also knew that he didn’t have anywhere to live and was sleeping on friends’ sofas. But more and more people started using PrEP. Awareness was growing too. Friends were accessing the drug through IWantPrEPNow. And eventually the NHS lost the legal fight.
7/ The NHS soon announced it would begin offering it to some people. Then at the end of 2016, something insane happened. The figures started coming through from sexual health clinics reporting a drop in HIV infections of 30-40%. This was unprecedented in the history of HIV.
8/ I spoke to the experts who confirmed that, above all else, it was PrEP – still not available on the NHS – that had led to this drastic reduction. And the person who’d been getting into the hands of people was Greg Owen.
9/ So in early 2017 I invited him into the BuzzFeed News office, interviewed him at length and wrote his story – about how despite being homeless, he somehow managed to run the website, promote PrEP and help trigger history’s biggest drop in HIV infections.
10/ The story went viral around the world. In Japan alone about half a million people read it. I was inundated with emails from every continent. Production companies began to descend on Greg and me wanting to make a film about it. buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwi…
11/ In the end, one company ‘optioned’ my article about Greg, signed him and me up, and the BBC commissioned it. Tonight, then, the film based on my story about Greg, and about the legal battle for PrEP, will air on BBC2 at 9pm. It’s called The People Vs the NHS.
12/ What began, then, with reporting on something no one knew or cared about, and someone who was – and Greg freely admits it – totally winging it, somehow came to this.
13/ Above all, I’m delighted that more people will learn about PrEP, and know Greg’s story – how one individual can, despite the odds, instigate real change. He’s madly brilliant, hilarious, hardcore and really, really cares.
14/ All of this was possible because BuzzFeed invests in reporting on LGBT issues and my editors @janinegibson and @stuartmillar159 let me report repeatedly and aggressively on PrEP over two years, as the rest of the media dipped in and out.
15/ The wider picture is that PrEP became available (though not yet fully rolled out on the NHS) because of a range of brilliant people and organisations including (but not limited to) @marct_01, @drwilln, @nat_aids_trust, @magsportman, @davidastuart.
16/ One final word: PrEP works. It’s a vital tool in the fight against HIV and it's cheaper than treating someone for HIV. You can moralise if you want, but does that save lives? Enjoy the film tonight.
