Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - Sunday October 26, 2003
Marjorie Copeland

"I'm HIV-positive and positive about HIV," says Leon, 38, of Umbilo, Durban. "I'm married, I overwork, I travel too much, go to Taebo classes, walk my dogs and I've never had a day's illness since my diagnosis."

At the beginning of October, she was clinically diagnosed with Aids when her CD4 count dropped below 200.

A motivational speaker, she immediately stepped up her speaking engagements when she heard the news, started another diet because she is 5kg overweight, changed her hair colour for the third time and doubled her workload.

"My message is even more important now," she says. "Few people realise you can be plump and healthy and not just waste away when you've been HIV-positive for years, particularly when you reach the final stage.

"I've still got long-term plans for the future, because I've learned to live with this virus. It's not my enemy, because I know and understand it."

So far this year, Leon has run 535 educational workshops, talked at 88 primary schools, 96 businesses, 58 churches and 24 tertiary institutions. In all, she has spoken to over 40 000 people.

In addition, she helps at the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust in Durban and runs a Buddy Helpline, putting hundreds of HIV-positive people in touch with each other to chat and give each other hope and support.

She met her husband, Trevor, on a blind date.

"After six months we decided to get married and had a compulsory Aids test to join a medical scheme - and that is how our lives fell apart.

"Trevor was told he was HIV-positive, and we just held hands and sat and cried. Then I realised how much I loved this man. I couldn't leave him and I said I would marry him and stand by him, whatever happened. The next day, we found the papers had got mixed up and I was the one who was HIV-positive.

"Trevor told me while I was on the phone to the florist finalising my bouquet. My wedding dress was hanging in the corner of my bedroom, our guest list was on the table and the bridesmaids had taken delivery of their dresses that morning.

"'I'm in love with you, not the disease,' Trevor said, and so we got married one month later than planned, and I made history by being the first bride in South Africa to be HIV-positive."

The Leon wedding was a happy day, even for the shocked and saddened guests, for few people could prove their love in a more positive way.

It was as a bride at her wedding reception that Leon first thought about becoming an educator.

"No one knew much about Aids in the early nineties, except that you died, but, until you did, you were treated as if you had the plague," she says. "A woman had recently been stoned in KwaMashu for being HIV-positive, others lost jobs, were refused treatment in certain hospitals, and children were turned away from schools."

She was also terrified of infecting her husband.

"But we were careful and concentrated on living, loving and being happy - and we've never stopped.

"Unfortunately, we've decided against children or adopting an HIV-positive orphan, because I'm fighting a possible death sentence and we felt my best contribution was in helping others."

The day Leon came back from honeymoon, she began learning about the virus, signed up for professional counselling courses and retroviral drug information while attending clinics for herself.

"I met so many people who knew nothing about the disease that I knew I had chosen the right direction."

Eventually she put together a programme on living positively with Aids and how to avoid it, and she gave her first talk to a class of primary school children. The teachers then asked her to talk to the senior school.

"I couldn't believe I'd actually done it, because I'm very shy and also partly dyslexic. But that was the beginning, and suddenly I was asked to give workshops all over the country. I now present the Rainbow Face of Aids with Tsidi Mopela of McCords Hospital, proving that blacks and whites are fighting this together.

Tsidi found out that she was HIV-positive when she was pregnant eight years ago. Since then, she has given birth to two babies by Caesarian section, both HIV-negative."

Leon says this was her first step in coming to terms with her condition.

"The second was doing everything I could to prolong my life. I concentrated on diet, mindset and exercise.

"I'm always asked about my health regime. I eat as much fresh fruit and vegetables as possible, particularly carrots, meat protein and soya products. I include anti-oxidants and selenium (found in Pro-Nutro), and I insist on sugar-free products, whenever possible, because too much sugar decreases the body's fighting cells. I drink plenty of water and I exercise, and I've had no illnesses related to Aids. Most of them are treatable anyway."

For final closure, Leon knew she had to talk to the partner who had infected her.

She found him in Addington Hospital with full-blown Aids.

"Facing the man who'd given me my death sentence, taken away my chance of motherhood and changed my entire life, I felt anger, which soon became pity, then sadness," she says.

"I finally saw him at the hospice and was with him when he died. I felt no bitterness, and this was the final part of healing."

Leon took part in an anti-retroviral drug trial, but when the trial was completed, she couldn't afford the drug and had no medical aid. Her only "medication" now is immune-boosting supplements.

"If anti-retrovirals are part of double therapy, they must be taken in conjunction with something else and the price can range from R800 to R2 000 a month. Triple therapy costs between R1 500 and R3 000 a month and, on top of that, there's the constant monitoring at R90 a time and blood tests at R650 to R950 a time.

"I'm waiting till the end of the year to have my CD4 tests done again. Then, if necessary, I will look at the possibility of taking Bactrium to avoid opportunistic infections."

Leon and Mopela are available to conduct workshops in English or Zulu. They can be contacted on (031) 205-9884 or (082) 951-9884.

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