Sara Litchfield-Pratt

Sara is 57 and lives in west London. When she was diagnosed with HIV in hospital in 2015 after a period of ill health, it was a bolt out of the blue. Life had been wonderful until then: she loved her work in IT which took her around the world, spending time with her cats and playing bridge. Sara struggled after her diagnosis, feeling depressed, alone and ill with her health conditions, and it took her a couple of years to be OK with being HIV positive. Now, HIV is the easiest of her conditions to manage and the least of her health worries. The hardest thing to live with is the stigma and she worries about having a relationship with someone. Even though she can’t pass the virus on, saying that she has HIV is really scary. She says that nobody would expect someone like her to be HIV positive. "People like me don’t generally speak out. But I don’t want to hide any more or feel ashamed."