Mother living with HIV

Date Published: 20-Jul-2007

Liz Martin will never forget the day she had to sit down to tell her young children that she was HIV positive. The young mother who was living in rural Galway at the time can still recall the day like it was yesterday.

“I was trying to explain to them that Mammy has a cold in her blood and sometimes she has to go to hospital. “I told them that all around the world there are doctors and scientists working on a cure to make people like me better.”

Liz’s daughter, who was just seven at the time, ran from where she was and opened the fridge and took out her cough medicine, saying: “Mammy, years ago they didn’t have this cough medicine to make me better and now they do and one day they’re going to discover a medicine to make you better”.

And as Liz admits: “What she said was heartbreaking but was also so positive and so full of hope. My children gave me great hope for the future.”

Liz Martin has now been living with HIV for 16 years. She contracted the virus through sexual contact with her then partner who was a heroin user.

Liz believes that the only way to get rid of ignorance out of society is education. That is why she has decided to bring out a book “Still Standing”.

She has nothing but praise for Aids West, with whom she is still extremely involved. “There was a friendly voice at the end of the phone the first time I called.” Liz now works in the voluntary sector and regularly gives talks about living with HIV.

Her hope for the book is that it will raise awareness among the public and give other people with HIV the help and support that just wasn’t there for her when she needed it all those years ago.