Gareth Thomas is leading the campaign Tackle HIV that is determined to fight the viruses ‘silent killer' and break down the stigma attached to it through the use of education.
Former Wales international Thomas is currently leading his Myth Bus Tour visiting several cities in an educational campaign, providing a visual and inspirational rally point to address HIV education and stigma.
Stigma, and self-stigma, where people living with HIV are judged and viewed negatively by others and themselves, can have devastating consequences on their mental wellbeing, quality of life and physical health, and often leads to a reluctance to test for HIV.
The 2022 Tackle HIV public survey showed only 45 per cent of people surveyed would consider taking an HIV test and Thomas stresses the importance of testing.
He said in an exclusive interview with The Rugby Paper: “Knowing your status and getting tested is a really important message. I sit on an independent panel and by 2030, we want to make England the first country in the world to have zero new cases of HIV. The only way we can do that is for everyone to know their status. Stigma acts as a barrier, so people don't go for tests and that's how new cases arise.”
Last Saturday, Thomas took the bus to Harlequins vs London Irish at the Stoop and spoke to former players David Flatman and Topsy Ojo before the match about the virus.
Thomas stresses it's important to have uncomfortable conversations in areas of society in which people don't think the virus can affect them.
He added: “Having it in that environment may make people feel uncomfortable about it but the whole thing about this is having uncomfortable conversations in front of groups of people.
“Tackle HIV fights the silent killer around the virus and how with medicine and science coming so far it's proved people can live with HIV and that it's not a killer anymore. However, the language used and people's perceptions would suggest otherwise. Stigma around HIV is a real problem and it's been reported that the stigma of HIV alone will kill around 400,000 people.
“We're taking the bus to venues and areas where this conversation wouldn't be had, because people think it doesn't affect them, when HIV can in reality affect anyone.
“People might not read this article, might not hear me on the radio but might go to a rugby match or might run the Cardiff half marathon where the bus will be, or they might see it on the road. The more I keep doing this, the more the message gets to everybody that HIV can affect anyone.
“In England in 2020, for the first time in over a decade there were more cases of HIV amongst heterosexual men than there were amongst gay and bisexual men, and in the world 54 per cent of people living with HIV are female.”
Thomas has been spat at in the street, called an AIDS spreader, received death threats and more but says he uses the abuse and discrimination he suffers as fuel to educate the ‘uneducated'.
He said: “The invention of social media was a great one but has its negative aspects. Anytime I do something profiling this, my social media becomes a place where people feel like they can abuse me because of discrimination.
“Sometimes I walk into a restaurant and someone wants to sit at the table next to me and then they see I'm there, so they don't want to be there anymore. When I leave a toilet cubicle, the person who was about to go in there after often realises I was in there and doesn't want to go in there anymore.
“People don't want to share a glass or use the same knife and fork. A lot of things that wouldn't be obvious to other people are occurrences in my life that have happened more than I would have liked them to. That gives me the motivation to one – realise what I'm doing is needed and two – to continue to evolve it. If people don't want to shake my hand, as much as it can be deemed as uneducated or discriminatory, some people are uneducated until they know that by shaking my hand the virus isn't going to be contracted. So, it's up to me to educate them.”
Tackle HIV, a campaign led by Gareth Thomas in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and the Terrence Higgins Trust, aims to tackle the stigma and misunderstanding around HIV. Visit www.tacklehiv.org and follow @tacklehiv
Written by Ben Jaycock
