Quintin's story

I am a white South African man, 36 years old. I have been living with HIV for +/- 11 years now. I want to tell you in short about my life living with HIV. When I found out about the disease, I was devastated and wanted to kill myself. It was a great shame in my country to contract HIV.

I went through all the acceptance parts surrounding my illness and then decided to live my life to the fullest. A lot of things happened, too long to tell you all about it. I married a HIV-negative girl six years ago. Last year we were blessed with a little boy and he and my wife are perfectly healthy and free of HIV.

I have not been on any antiretroviral treatment and my viral load is still below 5000 and my CD4 stays above 350. I take every day as it comes and work hard to stay positive in life. We are going to try for another baby this year, God willing, and cannot wait.

My biggest problem with the fight against the disease is that there is no unity in the world against HIV. Everybody is doing their own thing. I think that ambition will cure HIV/AIDS before compassion does.