Rugby legend Gareth Thomas has revealed he is living with HIV, having kept the investigation a secret for years, but states he was made to inform folks.
Even the 45-year-old became the first UK sportsman to disclose he has the virus during an interview with the Sunday Mirror – until revealing in a video on his Twitter webpage which he had been”compelled” to produce the admission.
In the video he states:”I want to share my secret with you. Why? Since it is mine to inform. Before I do, not the evils threatening to tell you.
“Now although I have been forced to tell you that, I opt to struggle to instruct.”
Talking to the Sunday Mirror, he said he’d felt”shame” over the diagnosis and had been suicidal at a single point.
“I had a fear people would judge me and treat me like a leper because of a lack of understanding,” he explained.
“I had been in a dark place, feeling suicidal. I thought of driving off a cliff”
League celebrity and the former Wales rugby union came out as homosexual at 2009, becoming the first British rugby international to do so.
Describing the afternoon that he received the diagnosis, Thomas stated:”I will never forget the moment I found out. I went in a private clinic in Cardiff to get a sexual wellness evaluation.
“I’d had the tests every now and again and they’d always come back okay. I didn’t feel ill and I thought it all was going to be fine.
“The girl who did the test required blood as usual, I moved out to my car and waited for around an hour before going back in to get my results.
“Once I went back in, I sat on a chair beside a doctor’s bench. She told me at a very matter-of-fact way I’d tested HIV positive.”
The rugby superstar said he immediately”broke ” and”thought I was about to die”, including:”I felt just like an express train was hitting on at 300mph.”
Mr Thomas now takes one pill containing four drugs every day and his state is”imperceptible” – meaning it cannot be passed on.
After being diagnosed his husband Stephen, who he met, doesn’t have HIV.
There’s still a lot of stigma around the disease although Approximately 101,600 men and women in the UK live with HIV.
HIV could progress to AIDS when it is not treated, but patients in wealthy nations do not develop AIDS when they get therapy.
Thomas stated:”Many people reside in shame and fear of having HIV, however, I refuse to become one of these now. We will need to break the stigma once and for all.
“I’m speaking out because I want to help others and make a difference”
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