Lucia Scalisi shared her heartbreaking losses in a chat with fellow Repair Shop expert Chris Shaw.
Lucia Scalisi told how she lost friends to HIV (Image: BBC screengrab)
The Repair Shop’s Lucia Scalisi has opened up about the heartbreak of losing friends to HIV.
In the latest instalment of the beloved BBC series, which follows experts as they restore cherished belongings, bookbinder Chris Shaw was tasked with repairing “a fragile but groundbreaking piece of British social history” — the original logbook from Gay Switchboard, reports Manchester Evening News.
Established in 1974, the helpline was founded at a time when gay people in the UK had no legal protection, with the logbook documenting calls from individuals seeking guidance and support.
As Chris set about his restoration work, fellow expert Lucia told him it was “fascinating” to see the sorts of things written in the book. “To me, it is really quite close to my heart, this because a lot of my friends died, particularly in the 80s,” said the TV star. “From HIV. And it’s as relevant today as it was, what, 40 years ago, 50 years ago,” she added.
The logbook was brought to The Repair Shop’s barn by Lisa Power, one of the helpline’s earliest volunteers, who described it as a “lifeline” for countless people at the time.
Lucia Scalisi opened up to Chris Shaw (Image: BBC screengrab)
“What you’ve got to remember is that in the 1970s, there was no legal protection for gay people,” she said. “People were isolated. They knew that there were other people out there, but they didn’t know how to reach them. And that’s where Switchboard came in. It’s still around today. It’s now called Switchboard LGBT.
“And it’s been taking phone calls and now all other kinds of messages and conversations for over 50 years. Someone will have written in the logbook for that time anything that might be of use to the volunteers.”
She continued: “The logbooks were kind of part diary but also part survival guide. It was instructions for us to help us handle the calls better. You’ll find simple, helpful information. And people needed to know information. There was no internet or anything like that.”
“It absolutely was a lifeline,” Lisa said. “Sometimes they needed help, legal help, because you could be sacked for being gay. If you came out after you were married and had children, you would not just lose custody of those children. You might actually lose any access to them at all because they were afraid that somehow you’d infect the children with your gayness.”
Lisa Power took the book onto The Repair Shop (Image: BBC screengrab)
“It’s shocking,” expert Chris remarked, as Lisa told him: “You’d start to also get the calls from people who’d told their parents they were gay and were saying, ‘I’ve just been chucked out. Where can I go?’ But it was really important we were there for them.”
“It was the powerhouse behind the early HIV information,” she said of the well-worn book, which was frayed and in need of a new spine. “I would end a call with, ‘Have you heard about AIDS?’ And a lot of people hadn’t. So we were spreading the information. And honestly, I believe we saved thousands upon thousands of lives.”
“It’s really quite incredible what Lisa and the helpline have achieved,” Chris said as he embarked on the painstaking task. “Incredible people, determined, in a climate that was clearly quite aggressive towards that side of the community, to say the least.
“And every entry is someone they have helped. This book is so important to repair because it’s the start of the helpline.”
