Insight

Journey for cure, one step at a time

EYESIGHT BY LEAH BLUNTSCHLI BLUNTSCH@MSCD.EDU

My parents knew a married couple that had AIDS when I was much younger, maybe 7 or 8 years old. I remember we visited them once for dinner. As we drove to their apartment, my parents told us about the sickness they had. They told us we couldn't get it from them and to act as though everything was fine.

But everything wasn't fine. Even though I was a kid and the concept of death was still dim, I felt a sense of doom over them. I didn't want to touch their silverware or sit in their chairs, and I didn't say much to them. It was uncomfortable. I was sad and ashamed.

When I signed up for the AIDS Walk with the Auraria Team, I asked for donations from everyone I knew. It was easy. I simply e-mailed everyone I knew.

However, my grandmother wrote back to say she wouldn't donate because she believes AIDS is preventable. I haven't dignified that with an answer yet, because aren't a lot of diseases preventable in one sense or another? If you don't want Lyme disease, don't walk in the woods. If you don't want malaria, don't let any mosquitoes bite you. If you don't want a cold, don't let anyone come near you, ever. If you don't want lung cancer, don't smoke, or better yet, move away from the city.

But that's not the point.

The whole point of the AIDS Walk is to raise money for the Colorado AIDS Project, which not only serves more than 1,800 people with HIV and AIDS per year, but also has outreach and education programs to help prevent HIV from spreading. Because even if it is preventable, it's still here. People still get it all the time, and not just those who take the risk by sharing a needle or a night with a stranger.

You can still get it even if you personally take every precaution.

While I walked the five kilometers with the hundreds of others at Cheesman Park on Sunday, the memory of that couple came back to me.

The wife had unknowingly contracted the HIV virus while working in a hospital-an accidental needle prick, perhaps-and yet, with her love, she gave it to her husband.

In those days, the late '80s, there wasn't a lot of hope or help for those with AIDS.

The couple died a year later.