ALFIE TO TEAM UP WITH PRINCE HARRY IN HIV CAMPAIGN
FORMER Wales rugby captain Gareth Thomas is planning to team up with Prince Harry to raise awareness of HIV.
The rugby legend, who revealed on the weekend he is HIV positive, has several goals including inspiring millions to get themselves tested.
As reported in yesterday’s Western Mail, Thomas revealed he was suffering from the virus and vowed to “break the stigma” after blackmailers put him “through hell” threatening to expose his secret.
Now, the 45-year-old, from Bridgend, has received widespread praise for his brave stance from the public and celebrities alike – and has further vowed to work tirelessly to raise awareness of the issues surrounding HIV.
Gareth said: “Like me, Prince Harry wants to break the stigma around HIV and he has already done a lot of great work.
“We are planning to work together now. To do something with him will be really powerful.”
Harry said: “Gareth, you are an absolute legend. In sharing your story of being HIV+, you are saving lives and shattering stigma, by showing you can be strong and resilient while living with HIV.”
And it yesterday emerged that Sir Elton John – who has launched a global HIV coalition with Harry – phoned Gareth to praise his bravery.
Gareth’s friend Prince William sent a message of support, saying:
“Courageous
as ever – legend on the pitch and legend off it.”
Gareth hopes that he and Harry can have the same impact on public awareness of the condition as the princes’ late mother Princess Diana.
She was credited with changing attitudes towards HIV and AIDS in 1987 when she was pictured at the UK’s first AIDS clinic, shaking hands with a man dying from the condition.
Until then, many people thought it could be contracted by touch.
Former Wales and British Lions captain Gareth said: “Quite often I look at that photo of Diana at the clinic next to those frail looking men and then I look at a photo of myself out on my bike and it motivates me because I can see how things have changed and advanced.
“It also makes me realise how lucky I am because I see what it was like for them and I know 30 years ago that could have been me.” Gareth and Harry, who turned 35 on Sunday, are in talks with the UK’s leading HIV and sexual health charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, about how and when they will work together.
It is understood they will focus on the need for more people to be tested to help Britain meet its target of eradicating new transmissions by 2030.
Harry has carried on his mother’s ground-breaking work. He has gone public with his own HIV tests to raise awareness of how important they are.
His charity Sentebale provides healthcare and education to children affected by poverty or HIV and AIDS in Africa. In his interview, published in the Sunday Mirror, Gareth said: “I’ve been living with this [HIV] secret for years. I had a fear people would treat me like a leper because of a lack of knowledge. I was feeling suicidal. To me, wanting to die... felt like the easier way out, but you have to confront things.
“Many people live in fear and shame of having HIV, but I refuse to be one of them now. I’m speaking out because I want to help others.”
He has now also talked about the support he has received from the likes of Sir Elton, who runs his own AIDS foundation.
Gareth said: “He’s brilliant. He rang me the other day while I was on the M4 and said ‘Gareth, it’s Elton’. I had to pull the car over.
“We had a massively supportive chat about me speaking out and he supports my reasoning and was nothing but positive.
“He said ‘What you’re doing is a brilliant thing. It’s really brave of you. I’ll support you all the way’.”
Gareth, who in 2009 became the world’s most prominent athlete to come out as gay, added: “Elton works tirelessly to raise awareness and I’ve been to a lot of his [charity] dinners.
“My actress friend Samantha Womack was one of the first people I told and [rugby star] Jonny Wilkinson and [Erasure singer] Andy Bell have also been so supportive.”
Gareth, who is known as Alfie in the rugby world and is a Cardiff City fan, completed the gruelling Ironman Wales challenge on Sunday to show he is still strong despite his diagnosis.
There were constant cries from the crowd of “Come on, Alfie” just hours after he revealed his diagnosis. He hugged his parents and husband Stephen in emotional scenes during the event in Tenby.
Competitors had to swim 2.4 miles, then cycle 112 miles before running a marathon (26.2 miles).
Gareth finished in an impressive time of 12 hours 18 minutes and 29 seconds, placing 413th out of 2,039 competitors.
Gareth, who only has to take one tablet a day and says despite his diagnosis he is even fitter than in his playing days, wants millions of people in Britain to get tested for HIV.
He said: “So many people think HIV only happens to gay people or people in Africa, but that’s the biggest load of b ****** s ever.
“HIV doesn’t discriminate.
“I felt HIV was never going to affect me, but it did.”
More than 93,000 people are receiving HIV treatment in Britain, but about one in eight with the virus are undiagnosed and unaware. Some people with HIV do not show symptoms for years.
Four in 10 of those diagnosed in 2017 were told at a late stage of their infection, meaning damage to the immune system had already begun.
There is currently no cure for HIV or AIDS.
But advances in medicine mean people living with HIV in countries with good access to healthcare very rarely develop AIDS once they are receiving treatment.
With the right treatment, life expectancy for a person who carries the virus is now approaching that of a person who tests negative.
Gareth, who made his international debut in 1995, winning 100 caps for Wales as a rugby union star, and four as a rugby league player, retired in 2011.
Gareth, an ITV pundit at the Rugby World Cup starting on Friday, added: “People need to know it’s OK to have a sexual health test. You don’t need to be gay to have an HIV test. The amount of people who don’t know their status is frightening, it’s got to be in the millions. People need to be tested and to know.
“Don’t be afraid of taking the test and it being positive, be afraid of not knowing if you’re HIV positive or not.
“It’s all right to be scared of the test, but it’s better to know than be in doubt. If you don’t know, you can’t look after yourself or those you love.
“AIDS is what HIV progresses to if you don’t know you’ve got it, and the later you leave it the worse it gets.”