Rugby legend Gareth Thomas has shown he’s living with HIV, with maintained the diagnosis a secret for decades, but states he had been made to tell folks.
Even the 45-year-old became the first UK sportsman to disclose he has the virus through an interview with the Sunday Mirror – before showing in a movie on his Twitter page he was”forced” to produce the entry.
In the movie he says:”I need to share my secret with you. Why? Because it’s mine to let. Before I do, Maybe not the evils threatening to tell you.
“Now even though I have been forced to inform you this, I decide to struggle to instruct.”
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, he said he’d felt”shame” on the identification and was suicidal at one stage.
“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 location, feeling suicidal. I thought of driving off a cliff”
League star and the former Wales rugby union came out becoming the first British Celtics worldwide to do so.
Describing the day he received the diagnosis, Thomas stated:”I’ll never forget the minute I found out. I went to get a sexual wellness evaluation in a private clinic in Cardiff.
“I’d had the tests every now and again and they’d always come back fine. I didn’t feel ill and that I thought it all was going to be nice.
“The woman who did the test took blood as usual, I moved outside to my car and waited for around an hour before going back in to receive my results.
“Once I went in, I sat down on a seat near a doctor’s bench. She told me at a very matter-of-fact way I’d tested HIV positive.”
The rugby superstar said he instantly”broke down” and”thought I was about to perish”, including:”I felt like the express train was hitting on at 300mph.”
Mr Thomas now takes one tablet containing four medications a day and his condition is”imperceptible” – meaning it cannot be passed .
After being diagnosed, his husband Stephen, who met, doesn’t have HIV.
Approximately 101,600 men and women in the UK live with HIV however there’s still a great deal of stigma around the disease.
HIV can progress to AIDS if it is not treated, should they get treatment, but patients in wealthy nations do not develop AIDS.
Thomas stated:”Many folks live in fear and shame of having HIV, but I refuse to be one of these today. We need to divide the blot and for everyone.
“I’m speaking out because I would like to help others and make a difference”
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