During the mid-to-late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became well known for her support of charity projects, and is credited with considerable influence for her campaigns against the use of landmines and helping the victims of AIDS.

AIDS
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was the first high-profile celebrity to be photographed touching an AIDS-infected person. Her contribution to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers was summarized in December 2001 by Bill Clinton at the Diana, Princess of Wales Lecture on AIDS, when he said:

"In 1987, when so many still believed that AIDS could be contracted through casual contact, Princess Diana sat on the sickbed of a man with AIDS and held his hand. If the Princess of Wales could hold the hand of a man with AIDS, who could claim to be above it? She showed the world that people with AIDS deserved not isolation, but compassion. It helped change world opinion, helped give hope to people with AIDS, and helped save lives of people at risk."

Landmines
Perhaps her most widely publicized charity appearance was her visit to Angola in January 1997, when, serving as an International Red Cross VIP volunteer she visited landmine survivors in hospitals, toured de-mining projects run by the HALO Trust, and attended mine awareness education classes about the dangers of mines immediately surrounding homes and villages.

The pictures of Diana, Princess of Wales touring a minefield, in helmet and flak jacket, were seen worldwide. In August that year she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after the conflict for which they are intended has finished.

She is widely credited for her influence on the governments of the UK and other nations, in their signing of the Ottawa Treaty in December 1997 (after her death) which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines.

Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook paid tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales's work on landmines.

"All honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines."
 

All profits generated to Althorp from the Exhibition are given to the
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund a registered charity (no. 1064238). There will be an annual donation of 10% of the retail sale price of all products bearing the Diana, Princess of Wales logo subject to a minimum of £10,000.

 

Photograph © Tim Graham