Humans of Shakespeare North Playhouse- Paul

Fri 1 Dec, 2023

Inspired by the original Humans of New York, Humans of Shakespeare North Playhouse aims to document as many of the wonderful people who walk through our building each day. Giving a glimpse into who they are and the story they have to share.

‘At Shakespeare North Playhouse I’m a Visitor Experience Assistant, which I’ve been doing since last July. I absolutely love it. It’s the best job I’ve ever had that in my life, and that’s the God’s honest truth. But for the purposes of today, I’m representing Sahir House to talk about my journey and what Sahir House does to help people like myself.

Sahir House has been going for approximately 34 years now. It came about through the AIDS epidemic in the late 80s and it was formed from two smaller groups that were in existence. Its main aims are to support people who’re living with or affected by HIV. It’s also there as a learning centre, so they offer training courses on HIV itself, courses on things like listening to people that have HIV, how it affects them, how it affects their daily life. It also supports people that have been affected by HIV, families that may have lost a loved one or may not be able to deal with the fact that somebody in the family has recently been diagnosed with HIV. Sahir House offer also look after asylum seekers that they know are HIV positive, they can come to Sahir House and we will assist and support them with things like Court Cases.

I was first involved with Sahir House when I was diagnosed as HIV positive 15 years ago. I turned 50 that June and was diagnosed in October of the same year. It was about 12 months after my diagnosis that I went to Sahir House for support and counselling to get over the shock and to get help to deal with things properly. I then became a volunteer with them, and eventually ended up as Chair with the Trustee Board and kept that position for two years. Because of other health issues and the amount of work I was doing I stepped away for a few years, but now I’m back and actively involved with Sahir House.

Unfortunately, we lost an awful lot of funding for providing sexual health services. Because of the way Sahir House has changed we’re focusing on the LGBTIQA+ community because there are very few resources left in the Liverpool City region for targeted sexual health services for LGBTIQA+ people. We’re also looking to set up two groups within Knowsley: one will be for the support LGBTIQA+ people and the other one will be a support group for those diagnosed as HIV positive.

Unfortunately, there’s still so much stigma and prejudice surrounding HIV because of the lack of education about it. One of the big problems we have today with HIV is late diagnosis. So, people over the age of 55 are still not being diagnosed in time. There are thousands of people living amongst us that are HIV positive, but they don’t know about it. Because of that it can lead to serious illnesses and health problems in the future for them. That’s some of the work we do as well at Sahir House about destigmatising and getting rid of these prejudices surrounding HIV. Especially with health care professionals. If somebody goes to the GP with undiagnosed symptoms, we always ask GP’s to please think outside of the box. What’s happening today is some people are presenting and it doesn’t occur to a GP to ask that question and there are cases where people are ending up in hospital very, very ill because they’ve not being diagnosed, especially among white heterosexual people over the age of 55.

It’s extremely important that we not only celebrate world AIDS day, but also continue the fight for people to start being diagnosed and for people not to be scared about it anymore.

What we fight for and what the National Aids Trust fight for is a consensus where it’s routine to have a blood test to have done, the same as a full blood count or a liver function test. We should have it as a routine blood test.

The message we need to say to people is it’s okay, it’s fine, you’ll live a very happy life. We can expect to live a long and happy life like everybody else.

We’re coming up to World Aids Day and for most people they think of a red ribbon. The reason we have a red ribbon is because it was designed by a New York artist collective and it was a way of continuing the fight originally for medication and support and to destigmatise. It’s a symbol used to recognise that people are still being diagnosed with HIV, and it’s also a symbol to remember those thousands of people that we lost to this dreadful disease.

If you want a red ribbon to show support, we have them here at Shakespeare North Playhouse. I would be absolutely overjoyed if I saw staff, volunteers and visitors wearing a red ribbon on world AIDS day because even the fact you’re wearing a red ribbon means you’re supporting HIV and trying to get rid of the stigma surrounding it.

If people want to contact Sahir House it’s very easy you can either contact them by phone or through their social media accounts or through their website. If they need specialist support we can then sign post those people to the relevant places.’

You can visit Shakespeare North Playhouse’s Exhibition Gallery to see one of the beautiful memorial quilts, pick up a red ribbon and head to Sahir House’s website for more information about the UK AIDS Memorial Quilts Exhibition with Liverpool Museums.

Sahir House offer accessible, non-judgemental support and advice to our community. Their services cover the Liverpool City Region and are free and confidential for all.

To contact Sahir House visit their website: https://sahir.org.uk/