A mum has described the heartstopping moment she took a home STI test and found out she had HIV. Shauna Davies said she thought her life was over when she made the shocking discovery aged just 25.
Given her lifestyle she believed it could never happen to her and feared she wouldn't live to see her four-year-old son grow up. But now, two years on, the 27-year-old from Port Talbot has come to terms with her diagnosis and is living her life to the full with a new partner and baby.
Shauna is now using her story to educate others and raise awareness of what it's really like to live with HIV today.
A simple at-home STI testing kit from Frisky Wales led Shauna to discover she had HIV, WalesOnline reports. She sent off the test and when her results came back in a phone call a few weeks later she was left stunned by the news.
She said she didn’t understand what the diagnosis meant for her - all she knew of HIV was that it was once considered a death sentence.
She said: "I went for the full MOT which included a blood test. I then had a phone call from Singleton sexual health clinic that said I tested positive for an STI but they didn't say which one. I rang back a few days later and they said I tested positive for HIV. My first reaction was: 'What do you mean?'"
In a nod to her own ignorance about the virus, Shauna said: "I didn't know anything about HIV at the time. When she said HIV the first thing I said was: 'I'm not gay and I'm not a man.' This was obviously before I understood exactly what it was.
"I rung my mum after and told her I had Aids. I didn't even know they were two different things. I thought I had weeks left to live and that I had better make a will."
Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is a fatal condition that develops in the late stages of HIV once a person's immune system has been attacked. It often takes years to develop following HIV infection in an untreated but otherwise healthy person.
"It wasn't until I researched it and met with people from the Terrence Higgins Trust that I realised it is possible for a straight woman to have HIV and actually how common it is for someone to give it to you without knowing," she said.
Shauna said she worked out along with her doctor that she contracted HIV well before her diagnosis. She said it was particularly shocking to her as she didn't experience any obvious symptoms of the infection. She said: "My overall health was good and I had no underlying health issues so I was all right. I experienced sniffles and I was a bit tired but I put that down to low iron. I went to the doctors and I did have low iron. I started feeling all right after I had iron tablets so my symptoms weren't as I would have assumed."
Following her diagnosis Shauna said she fell into a deep and dark depression. She had no education about HIV growing up and had only heard horror stories from the 1980s when thousands died as a result of the infection before treatment was available.
"When I first found out I tried to kill myself," she said. "I tried to kill myself because I didn't know what it meant and thought I would be called dirty and disgusting names. In the 1980s once you had HIV you were bullied.
"I thought to myself: 'I can't have people knowing about this'. I thought I would never ever leave my house again. I kept it to myself for a couple of months and I didn't leave my house. My son went to live with his grandmother and I didn't care about anyone or anything in that time because I was so depressed. I am a care assistant and I remember ringing in sick and just saying I wasn't coming in.I wasn't answering the phone and I did get into trouble but then I explained the situation to my boss."
Shauna said her mindset changed when someone she knew found out about her diagnosis and threatened to tell other people in her community. She decided she had nothing to be ashamed about and went public with her HIV status. She said: "That's when I decided: 'I'm not going to be scared anymore' and that's when I became public on Facebook.
"I wrote an essay saying I had HIV and I wasn't ashamed. The support I had then was absolutely amazing. The majority of people were amazing. I had kind words of support and it was the best thing I have ever done. I felt 110lbs lighter and that I didn't need to lock myself away at home anymore."
Soon after Shauna started a TikTok account to raise awareness of HIV and debunk the myths that still surround it. She currently has more than 55,000 followers and said the vast majority of the reaction has been positive with most people genuinely interested and asking questions about her diagnosis.
She said one of the main questions she gets is about her medication. Modern mediation for HIV suppresses the virus meaning it cannot progress and cannot be passed on to partners. It means Shauna can expect to live her full life expectancy and has been able to have a baby girl who does not have the virus. She said: "The medication I take makes me undetectable so if I go for a blood test now it will come back as negative. That's how low it suppresses the virus in my bloodstream. I can't pass it on and as long as I am taking that pill I will never ever pass it on to anyone.
"If you stop taking the pill I am on you will be come detectable again by four weeks. The pill I take you are supposed to take it at the same time every day to get the routine in your head but there is a 24-hour window and I won't become detectable again unless I stopped taking it for a month."
She said the medication is so effective at suppressing the virus that there is no legal requirement for her to tell partners if she has sex with them. However she chooses to tell them as she prefers to have an open dialogue. She said: "I am a very open person and I do like to discuss it with people. My current partner knows and he doesn't bat an eyelid. We can speak openly about it, it's not a raw topic."
Reflecting on how her life and mindset has changed over the last two years Shauna said her diagnosis has given her a "second chance" as she wouldn't have survived without it. She said: "I feel like I have been given a second chance because if I didn't find out I probably would have died. I am very grateful that I found out.
"At first I thought my life was over and that I would never meet anyone else. That they would think I was dirty, disgusting, that nobody was going to want to touch me or look at me. But once I accepted the diagnosis myself first and learned all about it I realised life goes on.
"People did accept me and people do understand. You're not going to be alone and HIV is not a death sentence. You get it and then you can get over it and move on. It made me want to live my life and get out there – I have never been so confident. Years ago I wouldn't have gone ice skating in case I fell and hurt myself. Now if I fall and hurt myself I think: 'Oh well' and I get back up. It made me realise I had to get out there and start living."
