Emily O'Reilly

Things will change.

I mean, I was I was reluctant to do this as well, in the sense that and I was me who approached you and all of that.

And I was kind of reluctant to do it because kind of I don't want to scare people either.

You know, there was an ethical issue for me.

Last year, the HSE started running a campaign, You, Me and HIV, which gave a very modern, contemporary image, shall we say, to HIV, that it's not a big deal, that one pill a day and all of that.

And I can perfectly understand why they were doing it.

At the same time, when I would watch some of these ads, I wanted to throw a brick at the screen because it was...

So at odds with the way my brother had died.

Now, it's a public health campaign.

You know, they can't curate it for my particular circumstances, the circumstances of my brother.

But I did speak with them and they were wonderful and they did listen to me and they did take on board what I was saying about the lack of nuance.

You see, on the one hand, it was a difficult thing for them to do.

They're trying to...

Encourage people to get tested, to take the taboo, to remove the taboo, to take the fear away.

But by doing that, they almost kind of downplayed, you know, the reality of HIV.

And it certainly ignored the reality of HIV for an older generation, the pioneers, if you like, you know.

So, yeah.

I mean, Brian, you know, the worst possible, you know, experience.

First of all, let's say he contracts sometime in the 80s.

He didn't go on ART until 1997.