Positive Life NSW

On 6 January 2010, people with HIV in NSW lost a good friend and valuable community service worker when Robert Attwood died at home. He had been sick for the last few years with motor neurone disease.

Michael Dwyer, John Rule and John Trigg remember some things about Robert’s life and contribution to the HIV-positive community.

Those who were privileged to know him through his work at AIDS Dementia & HIV Psychiatry Service (ADAHPS) can count themselves fortunate that he came into their lives. Bob's sense of loyalty and dedication to others was reflected in the way that those others responded to him.

His parents Cherry and Dennis left their lives in England to come to Sydney to be involved in his care for the last 18 months of his life. Their devotion to him made it very obvious where he had learned his sterling values and the qualities that made him a valued colleague and treasured friend.

Robert had been involved with the HIV community in Sydney all his working life. In 1992–1993, he worked at the People with AIDS Day Centre in Bourke Street, Surry Hills, and continued when the Centre moved to a laneway off William Street. The place had a lot going for it – good food, great view over East Sydney to the harbour – but it was a difficult time for many because of the number of deaths that were happening in the community. And there was Robert, a young, fair–haired, good-looking lad from Bristol in the UK, at the helm organising the whole shebang seemingly effortlessly and with good humour. Someone recalled on first seeing him working there, “Gosh, if this is one of God’s waiting rooms, they sure picked one hell of an angel to oversee it.”

He completed studies in community welfare and presented information at the NSW HIV Rural Conferences. He also presented on the use of new technologies in assisting case management and client services at the Australasian Society of HIV Medicine conference in Melbourne and on the case management model in HIV services in Australia at the International AIDS Impact Conference in Milan.

Bob liked life to be fun and he was able to lift spirits with his impish sense of humour and quick wit. But when life proved to be anything but fun for either his friends or clients, he was able to instantly respond with care, concern and empathy, and go straight to the core of whatever the issue was in ways that were always appropriate and constructive. This ability in his work was reflected in the high regard with which his ex-colleagues continued to hold him long after he was forced to retire due to the increasing difficulties that the disease imposed on his physical abilities.

Bob had a big, booming laugh to match his imposing physical presence. Despite the terrible toll which the disease took on his ability to function physically, it was his humour, sometimes dark and devilish, but often with a comic one-liner, that continued until the end.

He was a big-hearted bloke and he will be missed by many.