Living well with HIV today looks different for everyone – and that’s something to celebrate. For some, living well is found through movement and creativity; for others, through words and community. What connects these experiences isn’t the form they take, but the choices behind them.
This is the message of Choose U™, a global campaign that encourages people living with HIV to prioritise themselves and choose empowerment.
Treatments for HIV have improved dramatically over the past four decades, transforming HIV from a fatal illness into a manageable, long-term condition for many people living with HIV.¹ For Choose U ambassadors Joshua and Sandro, focusing on wellbeing and putting themselves first has changed how they see things and helped them to boldly express who they are.
Joshua vividly recalls the moment he was diagnosed with HIV in 2015: “My whole body just shut down. I thought: ‘This is the end.'”
What followed was a difficult period marked by shame, isolation and a lack of community. Joshua didn’t know anyone else living with HIV and struggled to find the reassurance he needed.
Following his diagnosis, Joshua also experienced anxiety, a condition which scientific research has found to be more common among people living with HIV than those without.² For Joshua, having a doctor he trusts and making decisions together, has been an important part of feeling more stable, both mentally and physically.
Dance has also helped Joshua process his journey with HIV, giving him a way to express himself without words. “I love to dance. It gives me a real buzz. I think it really tells my story of HIV.”
His passion for creativity also led Joshua to form the arts collective HIV The Naked Truth in 2020, connecting artists from around the world through dance, poetry and music. He describes the team behind it as “a group of like-minded individuals that want to raise awareness through artistic qualities. We want to end the stigma through the arts.”
What began as a personal outlet grew into a sense of purpose, a way of helping Joshua find his voice as an activist and challenge assumptions about living with HIV. “I suffered so much loneliness and fear of being judged in society. The arts is a way of celebration, of creativity. It brings us all together.”
Sandro was diagnosed with HIV in 2005 at the age of 41, following tests in hospital for something completely unrelated. He recalls receiving the news with no support in the room and feeling isolated even within his own community.
Now 62, Sandro has spent over two decades challenging the silence that he once experienced. As an openly gay man ageing with HIV in Italy, he’s become an outspoken advocate, pushing back against a culture influenced by faith, where conversations about sex, sexuality and HIV are still often treated as taboo: “We are Catholic – sex is something that we don’t talk about.”
Sandro has found his route of expression through conversation. He founded Plus, an organisation supporting LGBTQ+ people living with HIV in Italy, and created Positive Fridays, informal meetings that encourage open conversations about the realities of living with HIV long term, including how needs and priorities shift with age, from additional health problems to loneliness. It has become a way to challenge stigma, to share knowledge, and help people to feel more empowered to take an active role in their own health.
Sandro recently launched a website called Attraverso HIV (which translates to Through HIV), where he writes about “HIV, health, politics, rights, community, and everything that, starting from a diagnosis, ends up revealing something much bigger: the society we live in”. The aim is to turn data and lived experiences into something accessible, that meaningfully speaks to the HIV community.
For Sandro, ageing with HIV means continuing to make choices about his health, wellbeing and future. He believes staying informed, asking questions and maintaining an open dialogue with his doctors is essential. As Sandro puts it: “I choose to educate myself and to help other people, to educate, to empower. That’s why I chose Sandro.”
Choose U exists to remind people that choosing yourself, whatever that looks like, is not a small act, but a powerful one.
When first diagnosed, it was hard for both Joshua and Sandro to see a future. Joshua found his voice through the arts; Sandro through conversation and connection. Different tools, but the same underlying choice: a refusal to let their HIV diagnosis define them, a decision to live boldly and authentically, and a determination to use their experiences to destigmatise HIV.
Through personal expression, community and care that worked for them, Joshua and Sandro chose empowerment in the face of adversity. Although their stories look different, what unites them is the decision to put themselves first, and in doing so, they are living and thriving.
For advice about HIV, speak to your healthcare professional.
For more information on Choose U, please visit www.hivchooseyou.co.uk
- Ghosh AK. Four decades of continuing innovations in the development of antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS: progress to date and future challenges. Glob Health Med. 2023;5(4):194-198.
- Ji J, et al. People who are living with HIV/AIDS also have a high prevalence of anxiety disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front. Psychiatry. 2024;15:1259290.