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Personal stories |
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Personal stories
Positively Women provides support for women living with HIV by women living with HIV.
It is important that the voice of HIV women is heard. Written by women living with HIV the following pieces are just a few of the thousands of those voices. The Positively Women magazine contains many more.
Julie
"I was 24, in my final year at college and was planning to go to
university when I was diagnosed HIV positive in a small town in
Yorkshire in January 1991. I had been for the test having had a
sero-conversion illness some months earlier. I received pre-test
counselling for about an hour and the counsellor went through
some of the issues and made an appointment for me to come
back in two weeks’ time..."
Macey
"My official diagnosis was in 1989. I then took another test in 1990 in the UK to confirm the legitimacy of it. At first, I felt disbelief that I was infected. I thought, ‘how could I have been so stupid?’...."
Marianne
"I still remember the very cold January morning in 2002; I
was not listening to the pre-counselling, I thought it did not
concern me. I just wanted to get the test done and over with… Then came the shock! My life changed in a matter of seconds..."
Jane
"In 1992, I was 24. I was living in NY, was enrolled in film school, and had undertaken the first half of my film degree. I had been living there for five years, spent the first three married to an architect, and when our marriage floundered had found myself young, free and single in the Big Apple. HIV had dealt New York a harsh kick in the teeth, many of my friends were gay and I felt more aware than most of the threat of transmission and the realities of the virus."
Bea
"‘Can I have my children tested?’ I managed to mumble those words. The doctor had just given me my HIV test results; I was positive. My mind was racing, pictures of the ‘thinning’ bodies I saw back home in Uganda were flashing in my head, the pictures of death were too vivid! I stared blankly into space, holding on tightly to my children. Grateful that at least I was a mother, my concern now was with their health; surely, they must be positive!..."
Ange
"‘Have you looked in the mirror?’ the GP asked me. I thought he must be a bit mad! I had only just managed to drag myself from a bed I’d been lying in for days, too sick to move. Where would I even have found the strength, let alone time, to look at myself in the mirror?!..."
Leigh
"I was 34 and was given the news whilst in Holloway Prison; at the time I was addicted to heroin and inside for the third time on a drugrelated crime. I was put into isolation – it was strange, I was quite accepting about dying but I didn’t want to die the way that I was living..."
Dawn
"2004 is a year I definitely won’t forget. It had just turned New Year and everything was going great. I was at college, had a good job, a lovely boyfriend and lived at home with my mum who went to her partner’s at weekends (you know how it is when you are only 16: PARTY!) Everything felt right this was my year! Yeah for bad news!..."
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