Harvard honouring Elton John for efforts to fight HIV, AIDS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Elton John is being honoured at Harvard University for his philanthropic efforts to fight HIV and AIDS.

The 70-year-old singer was awarded the Harvard Foundation’s Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award in a ceremony Monday afternoon. Previous winners include former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Secretaries General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Javier Perez de Cuellar. John, who runs an AIDS foundation, calls the award “both gratifying and tremendously humbling.’’

He says he remains committed to “sustain and grow the progress we’ve made to eradicate stigma and end the spread of HIV/AIDS, once and for all.’’