Each day is a gift for Hillcrest AIDS Centre patient

THE streets may have been his home, but Thomas* was living on death’s doorstep before he was taken in by the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust’s Respite Unit.

The constant boozing had transformed him and he became a shadow of his former self.

He was unable to walk and his body was ravaged by pellagra, a disease caused by a lack of vitamin B.

“I thought I was going to die,” said Thomas, as he looked down at his hands on his lap.

“When I came here the nurses needed to put me in adult nappies. I told them I was going to die.”

After just a few weeks spent under the 24/7 care and supervision of the dedicated team of nurses and carers in the Respite Unit, life, and more importantly, hope, has sparked inside his eyes.

Now 35 years old, Thomas hopes his story will help discourage others from following the dark and lonely path he took.

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Bad influences

He was raised by his grandfather in Port Shepstone and was ecstatic to have completed matric in 2005.

His first big job was in manufacturing, a career path he followed until he moved down to Durban in 2008.

During this time he found out he was HIV positive, but didn’t take any ARVs.

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He stayed with his aunts and their four children, making him the seventh person in the household and another mouth to feed.

“I was living with my aunts when I became seriously ill. I went to a local hospital, I recovered and I began taking ARVs. I was getting better,” he said.

Thinking of himself as a burden, he left their homestead and, lived on the streets with on and off employment.

“It was two years ago that I started working at my ‘aunty’s’ store. She wanted to help me with a job as she could see how much I was struggling,” he said.

He was being given food and she was paying him to do odd jobs for her, but he was still living on the streets. A few months later she offered him a small space in a flatlet behind her business as a place to sleep and clean himself.

“I started drinking heavily on the days I had no work to do. I was mixing with the wrong people and they were a bad influence,” Thomas said, a touch of anger coats his tongue at the memories.

He would sell cardboard and copper to supplement his need for alcohol. He defaulted on his ARVs. Extremely ill, he needed to be admitted into Don Mackenzie hospital for six months.

Recovery

When he was discharged, Thomas admitted to falling right back into his old habits.

“My aunt was telling me to give up alcohol, but I was heavily influenced by the other people around me and I started drinking again.”

His face is a mask of regret.

“It was a strange feeling,” he said, when he woke up and could no longer use his hands or walk.

“I was questioning what was happening to me. I chose to move back onto the streets and I was so sick. My aunt asked her employees to help feed me and look after me. She did as much for me as she could.”

His aunt threw him another lifeline and he was picked up by a local clinic and taken to the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust in mind-March.

“Since I have been here, taking my ARVs, I can now use my hands and can walk again. I use a walker, but I am getting stronger every day. I can now walk to the bathroom without assistance from the nurses,” said a determined Thomas.

“I don’t miss alcohol at all. It is the one thing that put me in this place. I was taking alcohol instead of my pills, using it to forget my problems. My dream now is to get another job and hope to one day have a small business of my own. My aunty and HACT saved my life and I am excited for the future,” he said.

To support HACT and its Respite Unit, contact 031 765 5866 or email marketing@hillaids.org.za.

*name changed

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