Rugby legend Gareth Thomas has revealed he’s living with HIV, with retained the investigation a secret for years, but claims he was made to inform folks.
The 45-year-old became the primary UK sportsman to disclose he has the virus through an interview with the Sunday Mirror – until showing in a video on his Twitter webpage which he was”compelled” to produce the admission.
In the video he states:”I need to share my secret with you. Why? Because it’s mine to let. Not the evils threatening to inform you until I do.
“Now although I’ve been forced to inform you this, I decide to fight to instruct.”
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he stated he had felt”shame” on the identification and has been suicidal at one point.
“I had a fear people would judge me and treat me like a leper due to a lack of knowledge,” he said.
“I had been in a dark location, feeling suicidal. I thought about pushing off a cliff.”
League celebrity and the former Wales rugby union came out as gay at 2009, becoming the first British Celtics worldwide to do so.
Describing the day that he received the diagnosis, Thomas said:”I will never forget the minute I found out. I went in a private practice in Cardiff to get a sexual wellness test.
“I’d had the evaluations every now and again and they’d always come back okay. I didn’t feel sick and that I thought everything was going to be fine.
“The woman who did the evaluation required blood as normal, I went out to my vehicle and waited for about an hour before heading back to receive my results.
“When I moved back in, I sat down on a chair near a doctor’s bench. She told me in a quite matter-of-fact way I had tested HIV positive.”
The rugby star said he immediately”broke down” and”thought I was about to perish”, adding:”I felt just like an express train was hitting me at 300mph.”
Mr Thomas now takes one tablet containing four drugs per day and his state is”imperceptible” – meaning it cannot be passed on.
After being diagnosed, his spouse Stephen, that he met, doesn’t have HIV.
There’s still a lot of stigma across the disease although Approximately 101,600 people in the united kingdom live with HIV.
HIV will progress to AIDS if it is not treated, should they undergo therapy, but patients in wealthy countries don’t develop AIDS.
Thomas explained:”Lots of people reside in shame and fear of having HIV, however, I refuse to become one of these now. We will need to break the blot and for everyone.
“I’m speaking out because I want to help others and make a difference.”
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