Steve Lane on World AIDS Day: “I See It as a Celebration of Life and Remembering the Friends That I Have Lost Over the Years”

By Steve Lane, Senior Infrastructure Analyst at Taylor Wessing 

I work at Taylor Wessing in the IT Infrastructure team as one of the Senior Analysts, looking after the networks, servers, storage and other IT Areas that are not related to end-user computing across multiple sites in the UK, as well as for other jurisdictions in Dublin, Paris, Dubai and Hong Kong.

World AIDS Day means a lot to me, I see it as a celebration of life and remembering the friends that I have lost over the years, as well as other friends that live with HIV on a daily basis. I always strive to go to one of the WAD Services that are provided locally, as well as advocate for more education and awareness. Although HIV and AIDS affect so many people, it is sometimes forgotten throughout the year, and World AIDS Day is a time for reflection.

This year I have worked with our internal EqualiTW Committee (our LGBTQ+ network) to arrange a presentation and "Lunch and Learn" discussion for the Firm in the UK provided by Positive Voices from the Terrence Higgin Trust on 30 November.  This promises to be an interesting event with some education around the facts and figures of HIV and AIDS, followed by 3 people sharing their stories to the Firm about living with HIV.  There will be a Q&A Session afterwards.  We will also be selling the red ribbon throughout our UK Offices with posts on our Intranet about World Aids Day.

I think it is very important to have conversations in the workplace about HIV / AIDS as it is one of the hidden disabilities as defined in the Equality Act.  Although today, people living with HIV who have been diagnosed can lead fairly normal lives due to the amazing drug therapies that are now available, with minimal side effects, there are times that there may be issues with either the medication, side effects or other illnesses that can be affected, due to the weakened immune system, so some additional support may be needed at times.  Being an inclusive workplace, Taylor Wessing works to provide support for all staff regardless and during my 7 years at the Firm I have not been made aware of any stigma relating to HIV / AIDS from anyone that I have worked with. We have an in-house GP Service where staff can have an appointment to discuss this, if they don’t wish to talk about concerns with their own GP, or if anyone would like to find out more information, then I will always signpost to Terrence Higgins Trust, for their sources of information.

One of the myths of HIV is that it is no longer the death sentence that it once was. Drugs and technology have moved on leaps and bounds since the 1980's and 1990's. With the new drugs, monitoring and understanding of the virus, it is possible to live a normal healthy life. There are, of course, some restrictions to visiting or moving to some countries, but hopefully, over time, this will change.