Helene Mayer has been walking since 1996, when she joined the MGH AIDS Walk team while employed as a medical social worker. Many of her patients were HIV positive, and she felt she needed to do something to help.

Since then, she has formed the Mayer Virgile Family Team, a team made up of Helene, her husband, and their four childen. Over the years, she has walked while pregnant twice, once with her first born and again with her third born, has held her team together with her strong committment to stopping this epidemic. Like many parents, she walks so that one day, her children might know a world without HIV/AIDS.

As she puts it, “I remember seeing the faces of my patients who died during the beginning of the pandemic and remember comforting their families. It has always been my hope that, by walking, I may be bringing closer the time when families will no longer have to face this kind of loss. I walk for my children’s futures… and for mine.”

To visit Helene’s personal page, click here.