My Name is Alex and I’ve wanted to tell my story for a long time. All my troubles began when I started secondary school. I had been there for a year, I hung around with a girl from my class and we were both going out with two boys from school.
Seven years ago they told me that I was HIV Positive and had Hep C and it was then I started to look at my drug use and how I lived. You see, I started using Hash when I was 13, then went on to coke and when I was 15 I started using gear.
I was diagnosed HIV Positive in 1998. After getting the results of a blood test I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing, like an ostrich I buried my head in the sand and tried to carry on as normal
My name is Hope. I am from South Africa. I came to Ireland to seek asylum in 2001. I was diagnosed with HIV the second week after my arrival. It was like my world is ending because I had two kids back in Africa. I didn’t know what to do – I was confused – I thought I was going to die.