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Che's HIV Story

I was born in Fort Myers Florida. I was also diagnosed with epilepsy and have seizures really bad. Loud noises will trigger anything around me. As I got older my behavior changed. I was fighting every day, boys and girls.

Abuse

One day one of my so-called friends set me up. We're playing around this abandoned house and we were playing and when she went through the house and I went right behind her not knowing it was full of guys. They grabbed me and raped me and I ran home as fast as I could to my mom and call the police.

Sexual abuse

As the years went by, in February 1999 I was at a nightclub and Jamaican bar having a good time. I didn't know somebody was following me in the process. As I got home from the club, he met me at my front door with a gun to my head. He kidnapped and raped me. I would have been his next victim. Thank God for deliverance. God gave me the strength to run from him and I ran into a gas station and they called the police. I was rushed to the hospital immediately. A couple of months later I went to court. I didn't know I was going to be the next victim. Two ladies were left for dead, but they were still alive. They had no idea what he had done with them.

My HIV test result

I was mandated in March 1999 to take an HIV test. Little did I know that it was going to come out positive. From there my life went down even further. I started abusing drugs and alcohol overdose multiple times. Thank God for the medication today. Without those, I thought I didn't think I was going to make it.

Undetectable

Here I am 20 years now and undetectable. When I thought my life was over it wasn't. It was God just waking me up and opening my eyes to better things that I thought I couldn't do. Now I love to advocate and help other women like me because it's hard for us ladies. They have learned that though I have a virus living with me, it doesn't define who I am today. We are winning I am winning.

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