Alan Brotherton

Activist who helped to shape HIV/AIDS policy in Australia and beyond. He was born in Middlesbrough, UK, on July 9, 1963, and died of a brain tumour in Sydney, Australia, on June 12, 2015, aged 51 years. Activists concerned with issues in health care operate at all levels. Some do best in personal interactions; others work at community, regional, or national level; a few make their contribution through helping to formulate global policy. Alan Brotherton could function in each of these circumstances—and had done so, coming full circle in the process. Brotherton's first job, in the early 1990s, was in Sydney as an outreach worker for the AIDS Council of New South Wales. Now known as ACON, this organisation specialises in HIV prevention and support. There followed a string of other jobs in Australia and elsewhere, all related to AIDS. Brotherton's last job, from 2010 until ill health forced his withdrawal, was back with ACON as its Director of Policy, Strategy and Research. And he knew well whereof he spoke in this field. A gay man himself, he'd lived with HIV for 30 years. He had personal experience of the fears and dilemmas of those he sought to help—the more so given that he'd acquired the virus at a time when the outlook for people who were HIV positive was more dismal than it has since become. The Brotherton family emigrated to Australia when Alan was 5 years old, but on account of his father's occupation he spent part of his childhood in Malaysia. With a background in sociology, it was towards dealing with the problems thrown up by HIV that his life was devoted, whether formulating policy or advising people. The first ACON outreach job was followed by work for the Victorian AIDS Council in developing a community education programme, and then in managing the education team of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO). After working as a policy analyst, Brotherton moved from regional to national and global level with senior posts at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in London, and then the International AIDS Society in Geneva. The final move back to Australia and to ACON was prompted by the wish to rejoin his partner, Luke Cutler. But colleagues at the organisation he left and the one he was rejoining both agree that he was more than content to finish his working life back on home territory, and at the community level. Robin Gorna, now Executive Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health based in Geneva, met Brotherton in 1998 when she joined the AFAO. “Alan was the most extraordinary advocate”, she says. “As bright as a button with a phenomenal intellect, but one of those people who wear their knowledge lightly.” He was exceptionally well informed about all aspect of HIV, from the medicine of the disease to its social dynamics. “And he was remarkably good at passing this information on to other people with HIV”, she adds. Nicolas Parkhill, the current CEO of ACON, describes Brotherton as “passionate about making sure that the voices of those at risk of HIV were heard in the development of policy and the delivery of services”. And not just men who have sex with men but sex workers, injecting drug users, and anyone else who might acquire the virus. Parkhill was impressed by Brotherton's knack of knowing how to get things done. “He could be angry or fierce if he needed to be, but the way he generally operated was to be empathetic and persuasive. It wasn't always about banging on the door or being the loudest voice in the room. He was very smart and very considered. He was able to persuade, to make people understand what it was to have HIV. He had strong, well-articulated positions and was prepared to argue them. You could have lively debates with him, but without belligerence.” The brain tumour that finally killed Brotherton was diagnosed some 3 years ago, “When he got the tumour he followed the same journey through experimental drug therapy that he'd made years before on account of HIV”, says Gorna. “He was on one drug earlier this year, and he lived that experience with the same energy that he had during the early days of the HIV epidemic. He carried on working, but reducing to part time, and trying to live life to the full.” Brotherton had a fascination with people, cultures, and social structures, according to Parkhill. “If he hadn't been a community advocate he would have made a good anthropologist.” Brotherton leaves a partner of 15 years, Luke Cutler. From The Lancet published August 1, 2015