Blog Archives
Good Vibrations – The LGMCe and Positive East
Afternoon all,
A quick event update for you all:
Positive East and the London Gay Men’s Chorus ensemble announced that they will be putting on
another show together to raise funds for the charity’s HIV support services for gay men in London.
The show is called Good Vibrations, and takes place in St Pancras Church on Saturday 13th April.
Following on from last year’s spectacular show the Chorus will put on another night of show
stopping tunes, with the usual extent of razzle dazzle people come to expect from the London Gay
Men’s Chorus!
Positive East and LGMC’s aims are deeply intertwined: both are working to change negative
preconceptions, and work towards a more enriched society.
The event will raise funds specifically in support of Positive East’s services for gay men in London.
It’s estimated that 1 in 12 men in London gay are HIV positive. There are more gay and bisexual men
living with HIV in London than ever before. This makes the work of Positive East, and their network
of one-to-one and group support sessions, more important than ever before.
It’s vital that people don’t become isolated from their communities as a result of their HIV status,
and supporting this event will help make sure that doesn’t happen.Tickets for this one-off show are available online, at www.ticketsource.co.uk/positiveeast.
For further information you can call the box office on 020 7791 9353.
All the best,
Tom
UKPositiveLad
Latest Blood Results – March 2013
G’day Lads and Lasses,
Yesterday I went to my local HIV Clinic at the lovely Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. I popped in to get the results from my routine blood-work I had done last week.
My consultant gave me my latest figures: My CD4 is up from 534 to 627 (yay) and my Viral Load remains undetectable (double yay).
Now for those of you who aren’t au fait with the terminology here are some a couple of quick explanations from aidsmap.com:
- T-cells (or T-lymphocytes) are white blood cells that play important roles in the immune system. There are two main types of T-cells. One type has molecules called CD4 on its surface; these ‘helper’ cells organise the immune system’s response to bacteria, fungi and viruses. The other T-cells, which have a molecule called CD8, destroy cells that are infected and produce antiviral substances.HIV is able to attach itself to the CD4 molecule, allowing the virus to enter and infect these cells. Even while a person with HIV feels well and has no symptoms, billions of CD4 cells are infected by HIV and are destroyed each day, and billions more CD4 cells are produced to replace them. Doctors use a test that ‘counts’ the number of CD4 cells in a cubic millimetre of blood. A normal CD4 count in a healthy, HIV-negative adult can vary but is usually between 600 and 1200 CD4 cells/mm3 (though it may be lower in some people).
- Viral load is the term used to describe the amount of HIV in your blood. The more HIV there is in your blood (and therefore the higher your viral load), then the faster your CD4 cell count will fall, and the greater your risk of becoming ill because of HIV. Viral load tests measure the amount of HIV’s genetic material in a blood sample. The results of a viral load test are described as the number of copies of HIV RNA in a millilitre of blood. But your doctor will normally just talk about your viral load as a number. For example, a viral load of 10,000 would be considered low; 100,000 would be considered high.
- All viral load tests have a cut-off point below which they cannot reliably detect HIV. This is called the limit of detection. Tests used most commonly in the UK have a lower limit of detection of either 40 or 50 copies/ml, but there are some very sensitive tests that can measure below 20 copies/ml. If your viral load is below 50, it is usually said to be undetectable. The aim of HIV treatment is to reach an undetectable viral load.But just because the level of HIV is too low to be measured doesn’t mean that HIV has disappeared completely from your body. It might still be present in the blood, but in amounts too low to be measured. Viral load tests only measure levels of HIV in the blood, which may be different to the viral load in other parts of your body, for example in your genital fluids, gut or lymph nodes.
The dietician is slightly concerned about my weight however, I used to weigh between 62 and 64kg (that’s 9st 10lb – 10st in old money) and now I weigh 56Kg (8st 11lb). So they’ve put me on a new diet – where essentially they want me to be eating all day long. Lots of things rich in sugar, fat, dairy and protein. Not sure how I’m going to afford that mind!
To combat the rising number of cold-sores I’ve been getting too my consultant has put me on a daily dose of Valaciclovir to combat those at the root cause, hopefully we can get that under control too. All in all a pretty productive trip to the hospital, all done for four months now!
Until tomorrow lovely people,
Tom
UKPositiveLad
April 2013 Issue of ATTITUDE Magazine Out NOW
Afternoon all,
How’re we all doing? What’s that? Speak up I can’t hear you!
Just a little blog post to let you know that the April 2013 issue of ATTITUDE Magazine is out now in digital format, available on iPad, iPhone, Android and pretty much any other device going – you can get your copy here. For those of you who like something to hold in your hand it’ll be on new-stands from this Wednesday 6th March.
This issue our cover star is the stunning James Franco talking about cruising bars, leather and the Wizard of Oz. Zac Efron’s new film ‘The Paperboy’, lots of men in swimwear and my coming out piece. Yes that’s right – this month is the first month you’ll see my face in ATTITUDE Magazine, well all of it anyway. I talk about my journey so far, the support I’ve received and the highs and lows of my short time so far living with HIV.
Check it out!
Tom
UKPositiveLad
Here I am, this is me. The real UKPositiveLad.
Hello there,
If you follow me on Twitter (and you really should) you may have noticed that I changed my avatar, name and posted a photo of myself. Yes, all of my face, not a quarter of it, or obscured by a book, or an owl or something.
I’d always planned to reveal my true identity on the 1st March, just a couple of days ahead of my Attitude Magazine column – on the day I headed to Brighton for the Student Pride weekend I’m attending. But last night I was over with a friend, I was talking about the whole thing and getting more and more nervous. Then one follower on twitter suggested I should treat it like a plaster and just rip it off, get it over and done with quickly.
After a little thought, and a large Gin & Tonic I did it. I thought “She’s right. To hell with it. 5 days isn’t going to change anything” and posted “Hello, my name is Tom, and I’m @UKPositiveLad” (see screenshot of tweet to the right).
To say the response was positive is putting it mildly. I only had my personal phone on me, and not my UKPositiveLad mobile, but when I came home I saw that I’d received 53 DMs, 503 mentions and loads more RTs and Favourites. Completely overwhelming.
I want to thank you all for your kind words, support and encouragement. It’s been quite a journey from being diagnosed (not all that long ago really) to starting the blog as “Sam” through to coming out as Tom.
Fear not though, I’m still the same blogger and twit(terer) you’ve come to know over all these months – I’m just doing it with a face and my real name now. It’s pretty liberating.
I look forward to speaking to you all soon, I’m going leave you all with a little YouTube video (a bit camp) but the song pretty much sums up how I’m feeling at the moment!
Tom
UKPositiveLad
Tuesday morning on Gaydio talking HIV – listen again!
Afternoon,
Tuesday morning I was on Gaydio again, doing my HIV guest spot.
If you missed it I was speaking live on-air to Chris and Emma about the Health Protection Agency (HPA)’s HIV in the UK 2012 report, about disclosing my HIV status and my upcoming reveal.
As before you can download and listen to the show in MP3 by clicking HERE 
If you want me to appear on your show please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Student Pride 2013
It’s been a little while since I was a student, six years ago to be precise (oh I feel old), but I was honoured to be invited down to this year’s Student Pride 2013.
For a lot of attendees Student Pride will be the first ‘Pride’ event that they ever go to, so it’s important that the organisers get the weekend right, and that they have done.
There are multiple events, with a little something for everyone. For those that are old enough there are clubbing nights, with special performances from the likes of X-Factor’s Lucy Spraggan, Class A and Capital FM’s James Barr. During the day there are job fairs, theatre productions, live music and debates.
There will also be sexual health advice and FREE rapid HIV testing available courtesy the good people from ’56 Dean Street’. Make sure to stop by and check your status, it only takes a few minutes and could save your life and the lives of anyone you play with.
Student Pride 2013 runs from 1st – 3rd March 2013 in Brighton on the South Coast of England. If you’re a student and 16 years ago or more you can GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!
See you there!
Sam
UKPositiveLad
The big disclosure is getting closer!
Ahoy My Friday Lovers,
The past couple of weeks have been pretty interesting really. Lots is changing in my life, and all of it good – for once!
Just over two weeks ago I told my parents and my siblings that I was HIV+. I sat them down in the living room on afternoon, turned off Bargain Hunt and explained to them that I was HIV+, how it’d happened, and that they shouldn’t worry because I was perfectly healthy and happy. They all took it surprisingly well, I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was so good to just get it off my chest.
Last week you may have seen me tweeting in a panic as a young friend of mine who’d recently been diagnosed HIV+ was threatening to take his own life due to bullying and harassment over his status. It took nearly half a day to track him down with the help of his friends and the police. For me it was a case of deja-vu, I’d been through this courtesy of an ex-boyfriend soon after I was diagnosed.
(read my blog-post The Night I Almost Died).
I couldn’t believe it was happening again, and to such a nice young lad. It made me so angry. In combination of frustration and dismay I took to Facebook and wrote a coming out piece telling my 100 or so selected friends, family and co-workers that I was HIV+. I was beyond tired of watching people’s statuses being used as a weapon or as idle gossip. The reaction I got was astounding. Everyone was universally supportive, my parents, siblings, friends, distant relatives I’ve not spoken to in years and even co-workers were telling me how brave I was, how proud they were and that they loved me. I’m not ashamed to admit I had a bit of a happy cry into my wine that night. It even inspired another HIV+ friend of mine to do exactly the same, in solidarity, on his Facebook wall – he too was overwhelmed with the support and love he was given.
Then this week I thought to myself, well I’ve tackled Facebook why not my personal Twitter? Twitter is a bit of a scarier beast. I have hundreds of people on my personal twitter as opposed to the 100 on Facebook, and things travel a lot wider a lot faster – one of its core strengths in my opinion. The 140 character limit is also somewhat of a limitation. So what I did was write my message, split it up into several 140 character chunks, and then copy and paste them into twitter in order. Rapid fire tweeting if you will.
Once again the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. This time I had a few negative comments but they weren’t from people I really knew – so I can’t say I cared all that much. My friends (both online and in real life) have been incredibly supportive, some through offering hugs and coffee – others through just being my friends as normal. I’m at a stage where I’m largely comfortable with my HIV, I don’t need as much support as I once did, but it’s nice to know that it’s there should I need it.
The next stage is my coming out (as it were, I don’t know if there’s a better term?) on here and my UKPositiveLad Twitter/Facebook accounts. This will be timed to happen at the same time as the April issue of Attitude is released on March 6th. I’m not going to lie, I’m nervous as hell – it’s playing on my mind something chronic. But if the way people have reacted over the last couple of weeks is anything to go by then hopefully I won’t have too much to worry about.
Have a fab weekend,
Sam
UKPositiveLad
March issue of ATTITUDE Magazine – OUT NOW
Greetings to you all out there in cyber-space,
Just a quick note to let you know that the March 2013 issue of ATTITUDE Magazine is out now, and wow is it a tasty one! This month is is ATTITUDE’s famed ‘Naked Issue’ – featuring toned torsos and buttocks from the likes of Shayne Ward and Colin Gentry.
But fear not dear reader it’s not all style and no substance, this Naked Issue ATTITUDE have teamed up with NAT (National AIDS Trust) to talk about safer sex, condom use, HIV and the importance of getting tested – a must read.
Oh, and don’t forget my column – this month I talk about how I’m having ups and downs with my medication but how I remain thankful that it’s now, and not 30 years ago. Find out why…
Lots of love,
Sam
UKPositiveLad