Elizabeth Taylor’s friend recently shed light on how the actress’s personality helped changed public perceptions of AIDS.
In a recent conversation with PEOPLE, late British-American actress’ friend Trip Haenisch reminisced about travelling with her to Thailand in the early 1990s when the HIV/AIDS crisis was at its peak.
He told the outlet that her unwavering dedication to raising awareness for the deadly disease created a difference in the field.
Haenisch said, “One of the things that I really remember was from when we went to Thailand with her. It was during the AIDS crisis. She was there for AIDS and there was a whole wing of people with AIDS in this one area of the hospital. A lot of the doctors even didn’t want to touch those patients.”
“Elizabeth went in there and used her charm. They took pictures of her holding these people, kissing these people, and it really changed things for that country. She was saying, ‘That’s not how you get AIDS. You can be kind. You can be there for people.”
“There’s no understating how amazing Elizabeth was for that. She was always there for any underdog. She had good friends who were suffering from cancer. She was always there for them,” Trip Haenisch concluded.
It is pertinent to mention that Elizabeth Taylor, who stepped into the Entertainment world as a child actress in the early 1940s, passed away due to congestive heart failure at the age of 79 on March 23, 2011.
