The Last Gift Film
The Last Gift: Jim’s Courage, Our Hope
The Last Gift Movie follows The Last Gift Study at UC San Diego — an end-of-life HIV research program where participants choose to donate tissues as their final gift to science. It’s where science and humanity meet, turning an ending into a lasting legacy.Follow Jim’s journey —watch the full story.
The Last Gift: Jim’s Courage, Our Hope is a deeply human short documentary about love, legacy, and the pursuit of an HIV cure. As Jim faces a heart-wrenching diagnosis, he makes an extraordinary choice – to join The Last Gift, a groundbreaking rapid-autopsy research program at UC San Diego. His final act of generosity gives scientists at UC San Diego and Gladstone Institutes a rare opportunity to study how HIV hides in the body and how it might one day be cured.
Through their eyes, we see the power of Jim’s gift – not just as data, but as a story of courage that fuels discovery. The researchers share their gratitude, reflecting on how every breakthrough is built on the selflessness of people like Jim.
At its heart, this is also a love story: Jim and his wife, Susan, navigating loss with humor, tenderness, and grace. Together, they turn the end of one life into hope for millions.
The Last Gift: Jim’s Courage, Our Hope reminds us that science and humanity are forever intertwined — and that one person’s choice can change the future.
UC San Diego’s Last Gift is a research study committed to understanding the behavior of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the human body. This study aims to identify where HIV hides in an individual who is terminally ill. It is intended for those who live in San Diego County, and are willing to provide consent to regular blood draws and tissue donation at the time of death. The Last Gift study is especially unique because it offers scientists the rare opportunity to learn invaluable information from organs such as the brain, which is not possible to study with living individuals.
The Impact of Tissue Donation Through the Last Gift Study
Donating tissues at the time of death provides a pathway to a deeper understanding of HIV in the human body – and gets us one step closer to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic for all. A Last Gift participant’s legacy will live on and be accessible to researchers for many years after death. Because participants are gracious enough to give back to science at the end of their lives, their efforts are considered their Last Gift to the world.