‘I’m what living with HIV looks like in 2021’
GARETH IS WINNING OVER THE DOUBTING THOMASES
GARETH THOMAS had just been handed what he took to be a death sentence. HIV were three letters that conjured up one chilling image. That of a tombstone.
Thomas, a man of iron on the rugby field during a decorated career with Wales and the Lions, dissolved as the diagnosis was passed on.
“My initial thought was that I was going to die,” he said. “It was a dead-end moment where I didn’t see a future. Your motivation stops, your will to continue stops – everything just ends. There was a massive sense of loneliness.
“There was also a massive sense of shame. Not just shame on myself but the shame I would potentially leave my family with. I wondered how I was going to tell everyone else that I’m going to die and die of HIV. I very much loved my mother and father, and they very much loved me and were very proud of what I had achieved. How were they going to handle this? It was very bleak. Very dark.”
The stone monolith that had been the hammer blow of the government health information campaign around the virus in 1987 now had his name etched upon it.
Thomas said: “Everyone knew HIV as the gay plague or something that affected African men and women. That was all we had been exposed to. I didn’t know anything.”
Two years on, he is still very much alive. On Sunday he ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London as part of his Tackle HIV campaign with a team that included former team-mate Shane Williams and Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell.
He is not some sporting superhero defeating the odds – just promoting the reality of the virus today. “The science has progressed more quickly than people’s opinions,” he said. “The fear around transmission and some of the crazy myths are what we’re trying to break. It is not an easy process but I am what living with HIV looks like in 2021.” Talking to his parents was also a chance to take control. “I was able to educate them,” he said. “I, as someone living with HIV, take a single tablet a day and I am not at risk of transferring HIV to anyone. I have a normal life expectancy. I’m OK and more importantly everyone around me is safe and OK. “Forty years ago was the first case of HIV in the UK. It is so different now. There’s nothing to fear, there’s nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed of.”
At 47, and settled with his husband Stephen in Bridgend, the roars of the rugby crowd have faded. But the memories he is making now, running to raise awareness, mean more. “Being cheered for representing something that affects millions of people is far more rewarding,” he said.
● Tackle HIV is a campaign led by Gareth Thomas in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and the Terrence Higgins Trust. Visit www.tacklehiv.org and follow @TackleHIV
There are crazy myths we’re trying to break