WE BAND OF HIV BROTHERS
ceremony at a West End hotel.
Forty-three-year-old British Airways air steward Chris McCarthy beat hundreds
of other nominees
and was presented with a Red Cross Heroes Humanity Award by actor Jeremy
Sheffield from BBC TV's Holby City.
Chris has acted as unpaid and unofficial carer for his friend Neil Hemming
for the last two years. The 29-year-old Neil explains: "We'd become
friends before I was diagnosed. "I'd just started working for a conference
company in the West End and had so much time off ill, there was no way
they were going to offer me a permanent contract. By the time I got to
the top of the escalator at Oxford Circus I wanted to go back down and
go home. I would be sitting at my desk by 9.30am with a tiredness which
is indescribable. After I went for a sexual health check-up and was diagnosed
HIV the penny dropped. On one hand I was completely distraught but on
the other relieved that there was a reason why I was feeling so bad.
"My viral load was a quarter of a million and my CD4 count was less
than 200 so I had to start treatments straight away.
"The pill burden wasn't too bad but I had to take anti-sickness and
anti-diarrhoea drugs as well as antibiotics and anti-fungals which meant
that I was popping pills all day and night like Smarties. With every drug
regime there is a restriction even if you're just taking one pill a day.
It's a constant reminder of HIV in your life.
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"The biggest stress was financial. I was on £50 a week benefits, was homeless and had nowhere to go. "The benefits system takes so long to
