Breaking The Taboo

I refused to be ashamed of something I can’t control Channan Warmington Lewis Moore, 20, London

- Saskia Murphy, Liana Jacob

Playing with my toys, I was startled by my older brother.

‘It’s not fair!’ Tom, then 7, cried.

‘What’s not fair?’ I asked him, confused.

‘You’re ABC positive!’ he shouted before storming off.

It was 2006, I was just 6 and had no idea what Tom was talking about.

But that night, as my adoptive mum Janette, then 46, tucked me up in bed, I asked her what Tom meant.

‘Tom didn’t mean ABC positive, he meant HIV positive,’ she said softly.

Mum explained it was something I’d had since I was born.

And suddenly, everything made sense.

The medicine I’d taken daily, the nurse visits, the hospital appointments.

‘How did I get it?’ I asked.

‘From your biological mummy,’ she said.

Mum had always been open with me about my past.

I knew my biological parents were drug addicts.

Badly neglected, I’d been taken away by social services when I was just 6 months old.

In need of love and a home, I was blessed when social services found Janette.

‘That’s when you came to live with me,’ Mum smiled.

Still in primary school, I was blissfully unaware of the stigma attached to HIV.

‘I’m HIV positive,’ I announced proudly to my school friends.