The rugby star visited the campus as part of his Tackle HIV campaign, which is aiming to eliminate the stigma around the disease
Gareth Thomas is used to spending most of his time trying to erase the stigma of HIV. On a trip to the University of Nottingham, he was confronted with an entirely different challenge.But where often Thomas, who captained Wales and the British & Irish Lions, has to spend his time debunking myths from the 1980s ad campaigns with tombstones and booming voices, those connotations did not exist for a younger generation.
“We wanted to address stigma, but what I found here was that it was about stopping it existing in the first place. So many of the students we have engaged with don’t remember the 80s and the stigma, the tombstone advert etc. so they are just asking for information and what is relevant without having to debunk all the myths.”
“Even though they don’t have the stigma around gay bisexual men and it being a gay virus, they still don’t have the knowledge,” said Thomas, who also spent time speaking to the university rugby team. The good thing for Thomas though, was that the response from the students across the board, was to listen to that message.“We gave away a lot of tests, the ease with which people can test, they can do it in the comfort of their home. There seemed to be a real lack of shame talking about the subject which was so refreshing.
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