Injected with HIV AIDS Activist Brryan Jackson’s Lifelong Fight
Many of us have faced hardship in our lives. Some of it has been by the hand of others while some of it has simply been due to circumstance. When terrible things happen, it’s easy to fall into despair. Depending on the severity of the misfortune, some of us may even feel this reaction is justified. However, the greatest among us, those who we honor the most, are the ones that take their tragedy and turn it into an opportunity to help others.
Brryan Jackson is one such person. I had the privilege of interviewing him recently before his appearance at the BEAT AIDS banquet on October 21. At twenty years old, he’s one of the premier anti-HIV speakers in the country. He’s been infected with the virus for nearly his whole life. When he was only eleven months old, his biological father, Brian Stewart, injected him with a sample of the virus from his workplace. It would be years before Brryan could understand the severity of his condition or what it meant for his life.
Growing up, Brryan found himself having to deal with the ravages of his illness. Back in the 90’s, there was little knowledge of how to treat children suffering from HIV/AIDS. Brryan found himself taking 11 different medications a day and suffering as a result: “They say if the HIV doesn’t kill you, the medication will.” Due to the severe nature of the drugs he was taking, he found himself growing deaf in one ear. There were also lesions that formed in his brain, causing him to develop a form of ADHD. These are just a few of the health problems he had to deal with as a child.
If his health weren’t enough, Brryan found himself dealing with social stigma as he grew up due to fears and superstitions surrounding his condition. According to him, his mother had to fight to allow him to attend public school when he was a child. Even then, they’d only allow him to go under certain conditions. For example, “They said I couldn’t drink from the water fountain, I could only use the bathroom in the nurse’s office, and I remember they’d only let me come for half a day.” Apart from school, Brryan and his family faced prejudice in their personal lives. His sister’s biological father actually stepped out of her life simply because he didn’t want to be associated with the HIV family.
All the health and social problems that plagued Brryan began to come to a head. He found himself sinking into a deep depression. According to him, one of the things that helped him most was the support of his family and friends. He was surrounded by people who constantly let him know how much they loved him. He tells me, “When you have someone yelling at you in one ear, and someone else whispering to you in the other, it’s easier to ignore the whispers.” Rather than let his despair overtake him, Brryan turned it into an opportunity to help others like himself. At the age of twelve, he came to a startling conclusion about his life. It’s not about what the world throws at you; it’s about using what you have to help the world.
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