Pedro

15 years ago remember watching an MTV TV show that changed my perceptions what was then something that had little known about it. It would almost certainly kill you.

At the end of the last episode in the house a group of young people watch as Pedro exchanging rings with his boyfriend Sean in front of the smiling house members, (voice of Pedro) "Um…. It is a lot easier for me to face my own fears and to face the uncertainty of my own life humm… Knowing that he is there: So I love you.

Text on the screen as broadcast: 'Pedro passed away on November 11th, 1994, the night the last episode of The Real World San Francisco was televised.' 'Since the epidemic began 33 million people worldwide have died from AIDS' I remembered watching this and crying when it was first broadcast.

I cried tonight.

Then I remembering Pedro discovering he is HIV+ and is and is in despair and lost…. He goes to watch Schindler's List on the cinema and he realises it doesn't matter if he dies or not – Only that he stands up and makes a difference.

Pedro isn't the last beautiful person I have met in my life but because of people like him (some of whom I am lucky to call friends) I know more than I did but more importantly…. I think they have made me a better person. (Yes that needs work too).

'Each year 2.5 million people are newly infected'.

Tonight I watched a film of this story and was reminded how one brave young man's struggle changed my mind forever.

I remembered Pedro and smiled.