Andy Hilton is 48-year-old former electric engineer from the North West of England, who has been living with HIV for the past 23 years. He and his 46-year-old civil partner, whom he met in a social club in Manchester, have been living together for 17 years. Andy says the fact that his partner is also HIV positive has nothing to do with the bond between the two of them.
So how did he contract the virus? “I don’t actually know who and when, but through some sort of sexual activity,” he says.
“At first I didn’t fully understand the consequences. And I didn’t know who it was because over a year or two before that I had probably been with three or four different people and I never told to any of them about it. So, no I wasn’t angry or upset [against whoever infected him].”
Andy and his partner have both never been discriminated against because of their health condition. “We’ve both been quite lucky. I know of other people that have [been discriminated against],” he says. Although Andy says that he believes he is surrounded by supportive people, he still reckons that to be discreet is a strategic way for him to remain at ease in the town. “If I told everybody in my village I suspect they might be some discrimination. As I said, all of my family and friends know but other people locally don’t know.”
Andy admits that it is only now that he has learned to embrace the fact that he is gay and HIV positive, as when the ‘coming out of the closet’ concept developed, he was not used to being as opened as he is today.
Listen to Andy’s first reaction to HIV
After his diagnosis, it took Andy over 10 years later before he became seriously ill with AIDS. And so, he never had the courage to open up to his family and close friends until then.
“After I’d first been diagnosed, I then didn’t see a doctor again for many years. It was before the time that they were saying you need to have regular check up every few months. And so I got the diagnosis and went away and I never really thought about it that much.
“It was very difficult. Although I’ve got quite a good family, we don’t talk about that sort of things. We’re not that close that way, and so I knew that they would be upset and frightened and everything, so it was quite difficult,” he says recalling his situation in the beginning.
Listen to Andy on how annoying it can be to be gay and HIV positive
Happy with the treatments he is undergoing, Andy says that the great thing about taking the antiretroviral tablets every morning as part of his life, means that he still enjoys his life despite living with HIV. Therefore as the three different tablets Andy uses are efficient, he believes that he has a “fairly manageable condition” which never gets in the way.