Nurse who led efforts to tackle Edinburgh's 'Trainspotting' HIV explosion dies

Heather Black dedicated her work to supporting those with drug addiction.

A campaigner who founded a charity to help the “Trainspotting generation” during the HIV crisis in the 80s has died.

Heather Black died at home two months after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. She was 69.

The mum of three launched Support Help and Advice for Drug Addiction (SHADA) in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, in 1984, when the capital was ravaged by heroin and HIV.

Heather’s daughter Sarah Drummond, 44, said her mum was “pioneering” in her caring approach.

Sarah added: “She realised everything was interconnected – drug addiction, heroin and the wait for social housing.

“Kids were growing up in a place of deep poverty. The biggest thing she realised was the lack of services that was the reason north Edinburgh and Dundee was the AIDS capital of Scotland.

“The people in power were so against needle exchanges and they thought addicts were scum of the earth.”

Heather ran the charity for 13 years – and it still remains to this day as North Edinburgh Drug Advice Centre.

Sarah added: “HIV didn’t concern a lot of people, they were so gripped by their drug addiction.

“It was 15, 16, 17-year-olds – they were just babies. We still know their families. It is so heartbreaking that a whole generation was lost.

“Mum had that empathy and care, she felt for the underdog all the time.”

Heather also worked with young girls with autism and disabled children.

After retiring from her work in the community, she loved to travel.

She was devoted to her six grandkids and at the end of her life refused to go to a hospice, as only two people would have been able to see her and she wouldn’t choose between her three daughters.

She died on May 14.

Sarah added: “Only 10 people can go to the funeral but hundreds of people would want to pay their respects.

“We are asking for donations to HIV Scotland instead of flowers.”