At 18 months of age, he was diagnosed with haemophilia, a genetic disorder that meant he needed hundreds of transfusions to help his blood clot.
[1] This exposed him to many blood-borne infections, including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), with which he was diagnosed in 1984, at age eleven.
[3] Other HIV-positive hemophiliacs, including the Ray brothers in Arcadia, Florida and Ryan White from Kokomo, Indiana, had to fight lengthy and highly publicized legal battles to be allowed to stay in school, and were attacked by people in their communities.
This requires earning at least twenty-one merit badges and creating a project that demonstrates leadership and service to the community.
His friends were shocked, but supportive, and the Cooperstown school board volunteered to help Nicols tell the world.
[2] After Nicols went public with his story, his family received twenty-six messages on their answering machine, most of them offering encouragement.
[4] Unlike those who had preceded him, and contrary to his fears, Nicols was embraced and protected by his community in Cooperstown, New York.
This allowed him to complete the rest of his Eagle Scout project by educating people in colleges and high schools across New York State about his experiences living with AIDS.
Nicols also met with Presidents George H. Bush, and William Jefferson Clinton to discuss AIDS related issues.
Nicols, his sisters, Jennifer and Diana, and his parents traveled around the United States and the world to set up AIDS support groups.
In April 2000 on his way to a Boy Scout weekend, Nicols had a car accident, striking a telephone pole.