Danny West: My Journey With HIV/AIDS

Danny West is a trainer, coach, and leadership consultant, has been living with HIV for the past 24 years, and remains healthy today. When he was diagnosed with HIV, he was given 18 months to live, so he decided to take long-term sickness leave and take stock of his situation. Since then, being HIV positive has been the springboard for leading the life of his dreams. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, the focus of HIV was on death and dying. He has seen many friends and family members die of HIV/AIDS. His first partner with AIDS introduced him to the founder of London Lighthouse, the first centre in the UK for people with HIV which provided drop-in services, respite care, and a hospice service. Danny got involved with HIV support organizations and did HIV training. In the late 90s, Danny decided to take care of his health and took a number of years off. He’s now been successfully treated on antiretroviral medications (ARVs) for five years, and he wanted to do something proactive, so he set up his own training, coaching and leadership consultancy and is now a qualified professional coach. Today, with ARVs, people are now living with HIV, so Danny wants to contribute to that culture of life. For more information, visit http://www.ryl-training-consultancy.co.uk/ and http://www.AIDSvideos.org/.