Two years after the death of her husband in 2014, Mary’s body was breaking down, her health was deteriorating and her immune system was declining. Severe coughing and chest pains led to a diagnosis of tuberculosis and herpes simplex virus. She was admitted to the hospital for 3 months, where she was confirmed to be HIV-positive. She began taking ARVs to manage the opportunistic infections, and her health improved by the time she was discharged from the hospital.
Mary was scared that she would die of HIV/AIDS just like her husband and leave their children as orphans. But in 2017, her social worker referred her to a support group, where she found a group of people who could relate to her experience and provide advice and support. Mary says it was in the support group that her emotional healing took place and her health fully recovered.
She is now one of the community HIV experts that Kiunga uses to strengthen the support groups. She helps trace clients who are not adherent to ARVs back to treatment and links newly tested HIV-positive clients to comprehensive care clinics for care and treatment.
Mary insists that ARVs saved her life and she encourages people who test HIV-positive to enroll in treatment. According to Mary, HIV should not stop people from living a long, happy and fulfilling life. It’s possible to live a long life with the right treatment and support.