Most recently my battle has been against AIDS and the discrimination surrounding it.
On December 17, 1984, I had surgery to remove two inches of my left lung due to pneumonia. After two hours of surgery the doctors told my mother I had AIDS.
Eventually, I won the right to attend school, but the prejudice was still there.
How could these people in the public eye not be afraid of me, but my whole town was?
Twice a week I would receive injections or IV's of Factor VIII which clotted the blood and then broke it down.
This brought on the news media, TV crews, interviews, and numerous public appearances.