Andrew March was 13 when he was told he had HIV. Four years earlier he had been asked by his local hospital to come in for an Aids test. But the stigma surrounding the condition meant his family were not given a definitive picture.
"We were never told the proper result and we had to guess. It wasn't until I was 13 that I knew the result definitely. We had a letter from my headmaster saying he'd seen material on Aids [and haemophilia] and he wanted to know if he had to disinfect the school because of me. So my parents contacted our GP."
At that point Andrew was told of his condition, contracted through contaminated blood products at the age of nine. "My reaction was to take an overdose of 50 aspirin. As a haemophiliac you aren't meant to take aspirin and I had life-threatening gastric bleeding."
Now 33, Mr March is a composer, living in London. "I am what's called a long-term non-progresser, and have had no Aids medicine. I have responded to medicine for the hep C so have cleared it. I am one of a very small number of gay haemophiliacs and I obviously contracted HIV before I knew about my sexuality. But I am single.
"I have had two relationships but the psychological aspects are an absolute nightmare in terms of dating. I have met people who are wonderful and would be wonderful partners but it doesn't get beyond the first week. It's really hard. I feel like I'm poisonous."
