Henry Nicols - Early Life

Early Life

Nicols was born with haemophilia, a genetic disorder that meant he needed hundreds of transfusions to help his blood clot. This exposed him to many blood-borne infections, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), with which he was diagnosed in 1984, at age eleven. When Nicols was diagnosed, HIV/AIDS was a new, poorly understood disease that was highly stigmatized and had no known treatment. Other HIV-positive hemophiliacs, including the Ray brothers in Arcadia, Florida and Ryan White from Kokomo, Indiana, had to fight lengthy and highly-publicized legal battles to be allowed to stay in school, and were attacked by people in their communities. To avoid a similar experience, Nicols and his family chose not to tell anyone, including close friends and family, about his HIV infection.

Nicols's parents tried give him a normal life and to keep people from judging him by his illness. He grew up in Cooperstown, New York, attended high school and received treatment for his HIV more than 200 miles away in New York City, where a child with AIDS might attract less attention. He was an avid camper and backpacker, took karate lessons, and threw himself into being a Boy Scout. By the time he was seventeen he was working to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest honor available to Boy Scouts in America. This requires earning at least twenty-one merit badges and creating a project that demonstrates leadership and service to the community. In 1990, Nicols had his first opportunistic infection, which meant that he had progressed from being HIV-positive to having AIDS. Nicols's doctors told the family that he had about two years left to live.