Imagine for a second what it would be like to be reaching adulthood as a gay man in the early 1980s in Perth and be diagnosed with HIV, a new virus with no known treatment that was responsible for many deaths, particularly amongst your peers in the gay community. This is exactly the situation that our guest in this episode, Pete Townsend, found himself in. In the decades that followed, Pete was able to overcome this and other incredible health challenges (such as being diagnosed with Hepatitis C), and now works at HepatitisWA as a volunteer co-ordinator, with the service helping people who have contracted blood-borne viruses, by providing clean needles and syringes as well as a range of other supports. Pete generously sat down and shared with us stories of some of his experiences living in places such as Sydney and different parts of Europe for many years. We discuss at length the stigma Pete and his peers had to navigate as members of the gay community, and how times have changed. We also hear some of the loss and grief that Pete has experienced, losing loved ones to illness over the years. We discuss themes such as drug use and death in this episode, so this may be one to avoid if those topics are likely to cause you distress.
We discuss Pete’s poetry during the episode, you can visit here to about this: https://www.nopantspetey.com/
For information on HepatitisWA you can visit here: https://www.hepatitiswa.com.au
If this episode has caused you any concerns, you can contact Lifeline Australia on 131114
As always, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can contact us at: [email protected] or via twitter @healthmeanswhat or via FaceBook @MeaningofHealth

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