00:00I mean, has there been obvious change?
00:04Well, that's so interesting that you're asking me that question,
00:06because I think people would far rather hear that from you.
00:09Like, this is, you know, a virus that you know better than most
00:15is or was very much was a death sentence.
00:19And now it's a manageable disease, right?
00:23So in that respect, the way that we should be viewing it
00:26is totally different.
00:28Like, I wasn't around in those days when, you know, the,
00:33I don't know whether you want to call them advertisements,
00:36commercials, whatever they were, but those horrible videos
00:38that existed, you know, all over television,
00:41trying to basically completely polarize everyone who had the virus
00:49or anyone who even talked about the virus from everybody else.
00:54So I think what my mum did and what so many other people did
00:56at that time was to smash that wall down,
01:01to kick the door open and say, no, when people are suffering,
01:05then we need to learn more.
01:07And if there's stigma that's playing such a large part of it,
01:10then what we really need to do is talk about it more.
01:12And that kind of makes people feel a little bit,
01:17I guess, uncomfortable to start with.
01:19But stigma thrives on silence.
01:21We know that.
01:22So there's always going to be people or groups
01:25or other organizations who may have agendas
01:29to try and keep this out of the,
01:31out of the, out of conversation.
01:34But what my mum started all those years ago
01:38was creating empathy and understanding,
01:40but also curiosity.
01:41And I think that was really powerful
01:43to be able to create that curiosity of,
01:45hang on, we know nothing about this virus.
01:46Can we at least learn some more
01:48rather than be so critical
01:49and so judgmental right from the beginning?
01:52So in that respect, I've seen a huge change.
01:55People are able and happy to talk about HIV
01:58so, so much more openly,
02:00but the stigma still exists
02:02and therefore the testing is still a problem.
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