[Viva] AVI's 25 snags MondayMag cover - oh yeah!

[Margarite Sanchez]

Thanks for sending this out to ViVA, otherwise I might not have seen it.
Nice job Charlene!! Very courageous of you.
admiringly,
margarite

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 9:21 AM, Kath Webster <kathwebster at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Wow Charlene!  The article is fantastic!  I appreciate you so much for so
> courageously being willing to put your story out there – it’s a very
> powerful act that makes a huge difference both in supporting and inspiring
> others with HIV (esp women) and helping fight stigma.
>
> You ROCK!  Big hugs, Kath
>
>
>
> *From:* Charlene [mailto:pickles4 at shaw.ca]
> *Sent:* November-24-10 7:50 PM
> *To:* undisclosed-recipients at prod.shaw.ca
> *Subject:* Fw: AVI's 25 snags MondayMag cover - oh yeah!
>
>
>
> Okay so I did this article for Monday magazine and I still vcan't believe
> they put me on the cover. Just thought I'd send it around. :}
>
> Still trying to decide if I like it or not. Guess I'm out there as far I
> can be now. LoL
> Kudos to Charlene and Glenn for amazing interviews with Monday! A Positive
> Outlookhttp://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/a-positive-outlook
>
> **
>
> *Posted By:* Danielle Pope
>
> 11/24/2010 8:00 AM
>
> *Living out of the shadows with HIV and AVI*
>
> When Charlene Anderson found out she had HIV, she didn’t tell anyone for
> six years. She spent that time afraid to touch or even hug another person
> for fear she would kill them—because that was what she was told would
> happen. Doctors also told her she’d only have about seven years to live.
> Then, Anderson came down with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized—and she
> knew it was time to come clean, publicly.
>
> Now, 20 years later, Anderson is a bright activist in the AIDS community
> and has been helping others face and work with the disease that hid in the
> shadows of her own life for so long.
>
> “When it comes to stigmas, the worst of it was in my head back then. I knew
> I was positive, but I didn’t know what to do with it—it’s life changing,”
> says the 49-year-old Anderson. “I’ve been very fortunate in so many ways,
> because the biggest stigmas I’ve had to deal with are actually from the
> medical world itself. Twenty years ago, most general practitioners didn’t
> know what to do.”
>
> Anderson says that years ago doctors or dentists would often schedule her
> as the last appointment of the day for health purposes, and write every
> other medical ailment off as yet another result of her HIV. Since then, she
> was able to find a doctor who specialized in HIV and AIDS-related care. And,
> to Anderson’s relief, when she did come out about her condition, her
> employer was extremely supportive, as were many of her closest friends.
>
> “I don’t have a lot of acquaintances now—I don’t have time for them,” she
> says. “I have some really wonderful people in my life, though, and a partner
> who loves me deeply.”
>
> *The wrong disease *
>
> Anderson has been on the board of AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI) for over a
> year, and has been a long-standing member since she discovered her
> disease—the term AVI commonly uses instead of virus, for the chronic nature
> of HIV. Anderson also participates in the annual theatrical production The
> Viral Monologues and frequently talks to high school students about AVI and
> about what it’s like living with HIV. AVI itself is celebrating its 25-year
> anniversary December 1—World AIDS Day. Yet almost 30 years after the first
> case of AIDS hit North America, stigma may be one of the hardest challenges
> remaining in the HIV community today.
>
> “There’s this perception that there’s a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ way to contract
> HIV, and the underlying question comes down to: was it your fault?” says
> Andrea Langlois, manager for AVI’s communications, community relations and
> research. “But we wouldn’t ask someone ‘How did you get diabetes?’ . . . All
> people do risky things at some point in there lives but, no matter what the
> results, people still deserve the same medical treatment and respect.”
>
> Anderson isn’t afraid to tell people she contracted HIV from a former
> partner who was an IV drug user. Yet when she tells people she, too, was a
> former drug user and alcoholic, she’s met with quizzical looks that yet
> again question how exactly transmission occurred. “Sometimes people will
> even ask me what my drug of choice was, but I never used IV drugs,” she
> adds.
>
> On the outside, Anderson looks like a healthy and boisterous middle-aged
> woman. Her eyes sparkle, she has a giddy spring in her step and she laughs
> often. The bright colours she wears are second only to her rosy cheeks and
> tanned complexion. She gave up the use of drugs and alcohol shortly after
> she found out she was positive and began taking better care of herself
> overall, she says. She was without any symptoms for the first six years of
> her disease, but at one time had to take up to 26 pills a day—many of which
> made her sick. Now, she’s thrilled to be on a cocktail of only five pills.
> “Something a lot of people forget is that every body, and every virus, is
> different,” Anderson says. “No two people every respond the same way.”
>
> While there’s still no cure for HIV and AIDS, medicine has come a long way
> in the past few decades. As Langlois points out, B.C. is currently leading
> the world in HIV and AIDS research, including advancements in highly active
> antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which can slow the progress of the virus,
> and programs offered by the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS which now
> specialize in women and marginalized groups, including aboriginal people and
> those living in poverty. Meanwhile, support organizations like AVI have been
> hard at work developing resources focused on the “living” part of living
> with HIV—including the Positive Wellness Program, Men’s Wellness Program,
> Street Outreach Services and more.
>
> *The $500 mission *
>
> It’s a long way from the six gay men who founded AVI back in 1985 with a
> $500 budget and meager resources. Since then, AVI has extended its services
> branches to all over the Island and, last year, AVI moved into a permanent
> location at the Access Health Centre on Johnson Street. Now, the group is
> operating with a $2 million budget and served over 500 people registered as
> HIV-positive in 2009. AVI also hosted 700 education workshops reaching over
> 14,000 people, and accumulated over 16,000 volunteer hours.
>
> “There are still some huge misconceptions out there,” Langlois says,
> including thinking you can contract HIV from being in someone’s house, or
> that if both partners are HIV positive you can’t infect each other. “One of
> the main reasons HIV spreads is because of a lack of education.”
>
> While the province does pay for the combination therapies, it can still be
> hard for many people to go the drug route, either because of the
> often-horrendous side effects, or—especially with the homeless population—an
> inability to stay on treatments long enough to have any effect. Some drugs
> must be kept at certain temperatures, and going on and off medication can
> actually cause the virus to morph into a super-resistant strain.
>
> While people with HIV are living decades longer than they used to, science
> is still researching the effects of long-term cocktail use. As the
> population ages, the effects are unpredictable. Anderson is now suffering
> from osteoarthritis, challenging hormone levels and chronic fatigue. Five
> years ago she had to quit her job of 18 years due to her loss of energy,
> which devastated her, she says. She’s lucky, though, as she now has the
> opportunity to be on permanent disability—something many people living with
> HIV don’t get. “The hardest part is how I can never predict whether it will
> be a good day, or a bad day. Today is a good day,” she says, laughing and
> bouncing a little. “But sometimes I can’t last two hours before I have to
> crash.”
>
> In addition to the fatigue, Anderson deals constantly with symptoms from
> nausea and headaches to stomach problems and more—many from her drug
> cocktail. Yet she brushes off the grocery list of side effects as all part
> of the day. Food is another special consideration for Anderson, as her body
> now requires more protein and regular portion sizes to keep up her strength.
>
> “In many ways, I’m actually healthier now than I was before I was positive.
> I had to change everything,” she says. “Yes, I’ve had HIV for 20 years, but
> I’ve also been clean and sober for 19 years. We have to be our own
> advocates, and I’m proud of myself for that.”
>
> *Paralyzed perceptions *
>
> When it comes to positive personalities, however, most of the members of
> AVI would agree that Glenn Maguire, a 60-year-old gay man, is about as happy
> as they come.
>
> “I’m not negative about being positive,” he says with a laugh and a Santa
> Claus twinkle in his eye. “I don’t let it define me. I don’t even think
> about it that often. Fifteen years ago, when I found out I had HIV, I was
> given two years to live. I’ve never been sick, my CD4 [red blood cell] count
> is up—I had a friend with a count so low he named each of his cells—but I’ve
> never felt better.”
>
> Maguire’s story mirrors Anderson’s when it comes to keeping the disease
> private. At the time he contracted HIV, Maguire was living in Toronto and
> working with a business partner who had leukemia, but also wasn’t ready to
> face his fate.
>
> “There is a certain hierarchy to diseases,” Maguire explains, drawing an
> air diagram with his arms. “Cancer is up here, way at the top, and HIV is
> way down here at the bottom. So nobody talked about it, and everyone went on
> in this great mental pain like nothing was wrong, but it was so tense you
> could breathe it.”
>
> For years, Maguire, who is also bi-polar, turned to heavy drugs, cocaine
> and alcohol to escape his reality. He would work all day, mentally vanish
> into his night until he could sleep and then start all over again. Then, one
> day—about three years ago—he says he woke up and realized he wasn’t living
> at all. He quit his job, moved to Victoria, joined AVI and has been a highly
> involved contributing member ever since.
>
> “At the bookends of life, your concerns are the same. You worry about the
> birds, the ocean, making grass angels. I say, almost every day, this is the
> most beautiful day I have ever seen,” Maguire says. “I can remember myself
> at age 18, and then at 57, and that man in between I didn’t even know. I’m
> the poorest financially and the richest emotionally I’ve ever been.”
>
> While he’s open with his disease now, Maguire does not enjoy the look of
> pity he sees on many faces when they hear he’s positive. “I don’t want to
> own your feelings of mortality, because I don’t share them. Even many
> doctors are quite uncomfortable with it. I’ve had conditions that have
> nothing to do with my HIV, and I had one doctor say, ‘Well, we all know the
> big elephant in the room is AIDS, isn’t it?’ It’s like a write-off. But you
> have to be treated with respect, and treated equal to all patients.”
>
> Katrina Jansen, AVI executive director, says that despite all the work AVI
> has done in the past 25 years, stigma is still the biggest problem the
> community faces—that, and the fact that resources are still needed.
>
> “In the next 25 years, our biggest hope is that we won’t have to exist—that
> the need for us will be gone,” says Jansen. “You have to wonder what the
> founding fathers had hoped the world would look like by now. So far, we
> haven’t even been able to get rid of the stigma, but that doesn’t mean we’ll
> stop. We can’t underestimate the tremendous advances we have seen. We just
> have to keep going.”
>
> In the meantime, keeping going—both with spirit and activism—is exactly
> what Anderson and many members of AVI plan on doing.
>
> “At the end of the day, I’d like people to realize I’m not special—I’m just
> a normal person, and this could happen to anyone,” says Anderson. “HIV is
> still out there and it’s a reality. But you can’t stop living your life
> because of it.” M
>
> On December 1, AIDS Vancouver Island will launch the online art auction
> fundraising campaign with local Canadian artists titled “Artists For AIDS” (
> artistsforaids.ca <http://www.artistsforaids.ca>). Visit avi.org<http://www.avi.org>for more information on AVI, how to donate, how to get involved or to access
> community resources.
>
>
>
>
>
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