Gareth Thomas wants more 'uncomfortable' conversations about HIV

Gareth Thomas wants more 'uncomfortable' conversations around HIV to help educate people and destigmatise the virus. Welsh rugby legend Thomas, 48, publicly revealed he had the virus in 2019 and is now the face of Tackle HIV, which aims to combat misconceptions around HIV.

Ad The former British and Irish Lion is part of the charity's Myth Bus Tour, which is travelling around the UK and aims to challenge people's understanding of the virus and educate people about it. RugbyWooden Spoon's Vets Fest 22 back with a bang in Birmingham12/10/2022 AT 15:05 Thomas believes it's vital to take the conversation around HIV to new places where it may not be as normalised.

«It is very easy to measure your success as a campaign by sitting in front of a room of people who understand what you're trying to do and get a round of applause, because they're already on board,» said Thomas, speaking during The Myth Bus Tour which launched at the Cardiff Half Marathon on October 2 and is visiting Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and London to offer educational information on HIV as well as encouraging and offering testing advice, information and test kits to the public. «What we decided as far as the bus goes is that it's really important to have on the ground initiatives, so taking the bus to places where potentially people would feel like they don't need to hear what we have to tell them.

They feel they're not of the characteristics that would be affected by HIV. »It's great to get the bus going and I'm excited to take it to places where you wouldn't expect to see or have that conversation.