Tag Archives: HIV

from a secret edge to a memorial for living…

I have quite a lot of reading to do for the study that I have begun. For those that don’t know, I’ve started a Law course with The Open University. Today, I submitted the second assignment, but I am digressing…


However, A Secret Edge is not part of the required reading for my law course, it is a short novel written by Robin Reardon. At only 19 chapters and 258 pages for me it was easy to read in a morning, well an evening in bed and a morning after finishing the assignment.

I’m not going to spoil the story so to read it you will have to buy it, as what hit me about it was the dedication.

For Jody Thomas 1951–1993

Robin goes on to explain who Jody was.

In 1983, across a table at a New York City sidewalk café, my friend Jody Thomas told me in hushed tones about the “gay plague.” I’d never heard of it before. Neither of us knew then that within ten years it would claim him.

Jody made me believe that, for him, gay pride was not pride in being gay but pride in being himself.

Jody, this is my square in the quilt for you.

As I lay in bed, next to my husband, I started to cry. I think I was wondering what would be the square in the quilt for those others, positive like me, who have lived and continue to live with HIV in Northern Ireland.

A simple book, that I bought off Amazon, as a bit of light reading, has started me thinking. There is no memorial to those who have lived with HIV in Northern Ireland. At least, not one in a public place where anyone can go. There is The HIV Support Centre, without which many of us would not have lived. But there is no public memorial, nowhere for us and our friends to be remembered as part of the community.

In my head, it is a simple stone in a public park, which can have the full capacity of life being celebrated and lived around it. Anyone else think the same as me? Anyone else think we can achieve this? Anyone else want to work with me to make an Memorial to those who have lived with HIV in Northern Ireland a reality? If you do… please leave a comment, and I will contact you.

originally posted on positive hivblogger.

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March 23, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , Blogging, Books, HIV, Northern Ireland

HIV Charity closure seems to be result of devolution

The Tyddyn Bach Trust respite centre in Penmaenmawr in Wales which has provided much-needed respite care for over 2,000 individuals and families affected by HIV since 1997 closed its doors.

As a former trustee of Northern Ireland’s leading HIV charity, The HIV Support Centre, I have some idea of how difficult it can be to get funding from health authorities and others to support your work.

The MP for Aberconwy, Guto Bebb, said that it was a tragedy the centre had to close. He suggested that the closure is an unintended result of devolution within the United Kingdom.

Clients coming from England means the centre doesn’t qualify for funding from Wales and they don’t get funding from England because they’re based in Wales. It’s bizarre.

Whilst I hope that the Trustees will be able to find more funding to enable them to reopen at some point in the future, it may be that they will have to take the Trust in a new direction. All Trustees of all organisations must look to ensure that they are functioning sustainably. It seems to me that there has been a major growth in the number of charitable organisations that seem to be chasing after the same pots of money from statutory bodies. Perhaps it really is time – even in this time of austerity – for everyone in the United Kingdom to think again about giving some of their income to charitable bodies. If we don’t, there will be more closures of charities in the days, weeks, and months to come.

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February 16, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , HIV, News, Wales

Is the Executive so tight that they cannot find £5000?

Logo of the Northern Ireland Executive

Can the Executive not find £5000? Image via Wikipedia

I was interested to notice that cancer patients in Northern Ireland are among those benefiting from a payment from the Northern Ireland Executive of a one-off winter fuel payment. Apparently this is because their immune systems are somewhat suppressed and they need to stay warm.

£5000 is not much in the overall budget of the Northern Ireland Executive. At least you would not think that it is. Yet this relatively small amount of money is all that it would take to extend the payment of the winter fuel payment to one group of people who could really benefit from it.

This group of people is made up of people who, like the cancer patients who are receiving the winter fuel payment, have suppressed or compromised immune systems. Yet, the cause of their immunosuppression is not one that seems very popular. We’re only just over a week from the Health Minister championing their cause, yet the Executive has ignored them in this payment.

I am sure that there are many fewer people living with HIV and receiving care in Northern Ireland than those receiving cancer treatment. According to latest statistics, it is suggested that the number is just under 500. Surely the Northern Ireland Executive could find £5,000 to pay the one-off winter fuel payment to these people as well.

All this takes is a bit of joined up thinking from those on the hill in Stormont. Is £5,000 really too much to ask?

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December 12, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , APNI, Belfast, DUP, HIV, news, Northern Ireland life, politics, poverty, SDLP, Sinn Féin, UUP

Crosspost: #HIV statistics pose more questions…

How many people are living with HIV in Northern Ireland? It seems that that question brings different answers from different organisations.

The latest figures from the Public Health Agency stated

There are now 474 people living with HIV infection in Northern Ireland.

However, Rob Anderson, Chairman of The HIV Support Centre said:

In Northern Ireland there are approximately 1000 people living with HIV in Northern Ireland however it is estimated that this could be as high as 1250.

It would be interesting to know what the true figure is.

With a little bit of curiosity I found the following information…

The HPA shows that there have been 812 diagnoses of HIV in NI. Where have all these people gone?

The Health Promotion Agency (UK) has a report stating that there have been 812 diagnoses of HIV in people in Northern Ireland since before 1995 until June 2011. This is very interesting. Although it states that there have been just under a hundred deaths this still means that there about 720 people diagnosed in Northern Ireland who are still living.

The questions has to be asked. Are they still living here? Have they moved? Are they not showing up in other information because they are not accessing care?

It is clear that without testing many more of the population, we will never know how many people are living with HIV here. But perhaps that is one way forward. Test everyone.

originally posted at Positive HIVblogger

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December 3, 2011 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , HIV, news, News, Northern Ireland life

Another policy, another delay: Poots does it again

Edwin Poots with Scottish Health Minister

Edwin Poots MLA together with the Scottish Health Minister. Maybe she can make him see some sense. Image by DUP Photos via Flickr

Once again it seems that Northern Ireland is going to be left behind by a Minister who has delayed policies in the past in another department. 

Today Edwin Poots MLA, our Health Minister informed the Health Committee in the Assembly that the lifetime ban on gay men donating blood was not going to be lifted, unlike what is happening in the rest of the United Kingdom.

It is clear that the Minister is not really taking the same advice as his counterparts across the water. A number of organisations and political parties have been making comments.

Are we expected to be self-sufficient with our own blood supply?

This is a fair point made by John O’Doherty of The Rainbow Project, if Northern Ireland is excluding donations, are we able to accept blood from the rest of the UK? I am not sure that we currently do accept blood from there – but surely it would possibly extend to donations of other organs.

The HIV Support Centre‘s new Director, Danny McQuillan response highlighted the need for focusing on the sexual behaviour of all blood donors. He also suggested that the continuance of this policy would discriminate and stigmatise people based on their sexual orientation:

We urge the Minister to re-think this decision and adopt a policy that will protect pubilc safety, a policy focusing on excluding those who engage in high-risk and unsafe sexual behaviour, not a policy that discriminates and stigmatises people based on their sexual orientation.

said Danny McQuillan, Director of The HIV Support Centre.

I really believe that it is time for Northern Ireland to ‘grow up’. Gay men are not the only ones that take part in high-risk sexual behaviour. How many other people are having unsafe sex regularly? It is likely that there are many, yet they are not banned for life. We need to look at this and get it sorted out.

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September 22, 2011 1 Comment Short URL , , , , , , Health, HIV

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