By Will Castle
Gareth Thomas was extra proud to see the Tackle HIV Bus Tour take to the streets of Cardiff as he brought his myth-busting campaign to his homeland.
Tackle HIV is a public awareness and education initiative, led by Welsh rugby icon Thomas in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and Terrence Higgins Trust, that aims to change public perceptions and tackle misunderstanding and stigma related to HIV.
The campaign was first founded by Thomas in 2020, inspired by his own experience as someone living with HIV and the public misconceptions surrounding the virus.
Offering crucial advice and information to students at Cardiff University’s freshers fair to empower a change in attitudes, it was a special moment for the ex-Cardiff Blues star, who grew up not a stone’s throw away in Bridgend.
“It's great,” he said. “Not only is it 20 miles or so away from where I've lived my whole life, but it’s also a city where I represented Cardiff as a rugby player for such a long time.
“It's a different phase of my life but I feel really honoured that I can use the platform that rugby gave me in the city to hopefully create a safer, better environment than the one I played in.
“I felt that, 20-odd years ago when I was playing rugby, to have this visual Tackle HIV myth busting tour parked up on the streets would be something that would be faced with a lot of frowning, a lot of discrimination.
“Whereas today, I feel through the work that Tackle HIV has done, through the work that Terrence Higgins Trust does and so many other campaigns do, it's created an environment where people are intrigued, where people feel like they can come and learn safely.
“So it feels like a real sense of being part of something that is moving forward, that is different now from what it was 20 years ago when I played in the city.”
Part of the tour’s Wales leg has seen the Tackle HIV take on the Pen y Fan challenge, with Thomas climbing the highest peak in South Wales ten times in the space of 24 hours - a feat equivalent to scaling Mount Everest.
All is done in the name of breaking down the stigma that surrounds HIV, proving that HIV does not hold you back from achieving even the most strenuous physical challenges.
“Going up and down Pen y Fan ten times, which is the equivalent of going up to the top of Mount Everest, I think is very relative to the problems everyone faces - everyone has their own Everest to face,” Thomas added.
“Nearly everybody I've ever spoken to who has been diagnosed with HIV or has had to be associated with someone with HIV has seen somebody who's faced their Everest, that's for sure.
“The narrative is very relevant to us as a campaign, so I feel it's really important that we are physically showing people that HIV is not a limit to what you're physically or mentally capable of doing.
“If somebody like myself can go up and down Pen y Fan ten times, it means I can go up to the top of Everest, and you know what, I can go from the bottom of the world to the top of the world. And if I can do it, trust me, then anybody can do it.”
Tackle HIV is a campaign led by Gareth Thomas in partnership with ViiV Healthcare and Terrence Higgins Trust and aims to tackle the stigma and misunderstanding around HIV. For more information visit tacklehiv.org and follow @tacklehiv
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