Rugby legend Gareth Thomas has shown he’s living with HIV, having kept the investigation a secret for years, but says he was made to tell folks.
The 45-year-old became the first UK sportsman to disclose he has the virus through an interview with the Sunday Mirror – until revealing in a video on his Twitter webpage that he had been”forced” to produce the admission.
In the video he says:”I wish to share my secret with you. Why? Since it’s mine to tell. Before I do, Perhaps not the evils threatening to tell you.
“Now although I’ve been forced to tell you that, I opt to fight to educate.”
Talking to the Sunday Mirror, he stated he’d felt”shame” on the diagnosis and was suicidal at a single point.
“I had a fear people would judge me and treat me like a leper because of a lack of knowledge,” he explained.
“I had been in a dark location, feeling suicidal. I thought about pushing off a cliff”
League star and the former Wales rugby union came out becoming the first British rugby international to do so.
Describing the afternoon that he received the identification, Thomas explained:”I will never ever forget the moment I discovered. I went to get a routine sexual wellness test.
“I’d had the tests every now and again and they would always come back fine. I didn’t feel ill and that I thought it all was going to be nice.
“The girl who did the test took blood as normal, then I went outside to my car and waited for about an hour before heading back to get my results.
“When I went back in, I sat down on a chair beside a physician’s bench. She informed me in a quite matter-of-fact way I had tested HIV positive.”
The rugby superstar said he immediately”broke ” and”believed I was going to perish”, adding:”I felt just like an express train was hitting on me at 300mph.”
Mr Thomas now takes one tablet containing four medications every day and his state is”imperceptible” – meaning it cannot be passed .
After being diagnosed with, his spouse Stephen, who met, does not have HIV.
About 101,600 people in the UK live with HIV however there’s still a great deal of stigma around the illness.
HIV will progress to AIDS when it isn’t treated, if they undergo treatment, but patients in wealthy countries don’t develop AIDS.
Thomas stated:”Many men and women live in shame and fear of having HIV, but I refuse to become one of them now. We will need to split the stigma once and for everyone.
“I am speaking out because I wish to help other people and make a difference”
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