He’s tall and handsome and radiates health and vitality, a young man with immaculate dress sense and a sizeable chunk of his life ahead of him. Yet the slick exterior belies a gruelling journey that has taken him to the bowels of hell and back again.
It’s a journey that made world headlines last year when it emerged he was only the second person to be cured of HIV – yet although he became an instant medical sensation and had media houses the world over clamouring for his story, his identity remained a secret.
Instead, he was simply known as “the London Patient” and it was surreal, he says. “I was watching TV and it’s like, ‘Okay, they’re talking about me’,” he recalls. “It was very strange – a very weird place to be.”
But now the London Patient – or LP, as Adam started referring to himself – has stepped into the limelight to reveal his identity – 30 months after he stopped taking antiretroviral medication.
THE PATIENT
He is Adam Castillejo and he’s decided to tell his story because he wants to be an inspiration to others living with HIV/ Aids.
“This is a unique position to be in, a unique and very humbling position,” he said in a recent interview with the New York Times. “I want to be an ambassador of hope.”
Adam (40) must be one of the few people for whom advanced cancer ended up being a blessing in disguise. Last year, scientists announced that the London Patient had been cured of HIV after receiving a bone-marrow transplant for stage 4 lymphoma.
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