By Roland Chesters
When given a prognosis of two weeks to live and then being told he had both HIV and AIDS the author, shaken to his core embarks on a series of life changing decisions. In this book Chesters, along with a dozen other people all talk frankly and with an honest charm, about their own diagnosis experience with HIV and how that altered them, changed them and brought new insight into their lives.
This is essential reading for anyone recently diagnosed with HIV or for folk supporting them. Apart from the expected thick crust stuffing of hope, and the day to day coping mechanisms of living with HIV which I anticipated from this book, there’s also Chester’s unexpected humour and rather brutal honesty in talking about how he dealt with this shocking experience. In these days of Prep and the flickering hope of a HIV vaccine, we urgently need to be reminded of true lives lived with HIV, and lived well.
His reflections on his life puts thing into context and it felt like listening to someone much-loved recanting a story of survival to me. Allowing us readers to comprehend the earthquakes of emotion which accompany these kind of shattering medical revelations and also how to put them in perspective, understand their impact and learn to live, fully and with passion our remaining days out. None of us know how many heart beats we have left, facing mortality is a culturally difficult thing, this book gives us clear clarion voice after voice which shows us, gently, but insistently there many ways of successfully navigating horrific times, and surviving.
For more info or to buy the book see the publishers website here.