THIS IS SO TOUCHING: HE’S 30 AND HAS BEEN ON ARVS FOR 22 YEARS 👏🏾👏🏾
…he recalls knowing his status while on a bus to school to start his grade 8… before then, he knew nothing!
Hi everyone, my name is Thomas Ntalasha, I’m 30 years old. I am a counselor , Psychologist, National Administrative assistant and Copperbelt Province senior Administrator for Phenomenal Youths Association.
This my Treatment Journey 😊
I am HIV positive and I have been living with the virus for as long as I can remember.
I can’t really recall how or when it happened but this is what I have been told by the guardians who were present during that time..
One day when I was at school grounds playing during break time, this was 1998 when I was 7 yrs old, I felt sick like really sick. Next thing, I collapsed and was rushed to a near by private hospital and was attended to. The doctor later told my guardians that I needed a blood transfusion if I was to live … thankfully they had found a match in a fast way and I recovered . A year later, I fell sick again , and this time after running tests it was discovered that I have TB and HIV at same time. They had to put me on TB Treatment first then ARVs later on . This is the time when a lot of us people never had full knowledge about HIV. Stigma and discrimination was at its highest because the one having it was terrified of themselves and the only thought that crossed their mind was Death , the ones not having it were afraid of it and wouldn’t even desire to share things with the positive ones .. I remember being given a plate, a spoon, a cup of my own and an isolated place to be eating from .. funny thing is I still have that cup 😅 .. life was never so simple being in such a position. Sad thing is I had no clue why I was living like that, to me I thought I was the boss 😅 who needed to have things separate from others.
I kept on asking them why I take this medication and their answer was to keep me strong , I was brought up and lived like that , till one day in 2007 when I made it to G8, my guardian gave me an acceptance letter which he had signed and told me to give it to the head teacher when I report for class.
I was so happy going to school as a G8, while on the bus going to school that day, curiosity got in me to just check what was signed in that letter .. so opened it, as I was going through the paper, I came across a question they had asked “does he/she have any serious illness?” And my guardian answered “yes , he’s HIV positive and currently on Medication” .. that right there changed my state that day ..
I stayed for months isolated and never made any new friends at school.. it took a while for me to recover..
I later took some counselings and I started doing some research . Thankfully I came to understand how this works YOU EITHER GIVE UP AND LET THE VIRUS TAKE CONTROL OVER YOU OR YOU BOSS UP AND TAKE CHARGE.
Acceptance, Loving myself, adhering to meds , eating, and exercise is what had kept me this far .
Clocking 22yrs on Medication, and who says you can’t live that long and achieve your dreams ? ☺️☺️..
Challenges will always be there, people will talk , but it all starts with you .. you wanna survive this long? It starts with you, you wanna stop stigma and discrimination? It starts with you .
Together we are strong .
You wanna chat up with me ,catch me on
@Ntalasha Thomas for Facebook
@Counseling insight with Tom for my page
@0978187954 For PYA administration office line and WhatsApp
Lots love to y’all.
