healthmedicinet

• Rachel Dilley, 48, says she had no idea she was at risk of the condition
• This is because she had never known a white person to have HIV
• When embarking on new relationship she didn’t use protection
• Says she was ‘too old’ to be at risk of pregnancy and hadn’t considered HIV
• A few months later suffered symptoms similar to a ‘severe bout of flu’
• Was eventually advised to have an HIV test – which came back positive
  

By
Anna Hodgekiss

PUBLISHED:

07:26 EST, 12 March 2014

|
UPDATED:

09:59 EST, 12 March 2014

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A mother-of-three who had unprotected sex says she never dreamed she was at risk of HIV – because ‘only African people could get it’.

Rachel Dilley, 48, developed the condition nearly a decade ago.

Appearing on ITV’s This Morning to discuss her diagnosis, she said she hadn’t realised at the time that ‘white people had ever had it’.

She told amazed hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that the risks had genuinely never crossed her mind.

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Naive: Rachel Dilley says she had no idea of the risks of getting HIV – because she thought ‘only people in Africa got it’

It was in 2004, just short of her 40th birthday, when she embarked on online dating, having split from her partner of 20 years and the father of her children the year before.

She began dating a man called Simon* and said the pair seemed to click and get on well.

Over the course of the summer, their relationship progressed physically.

But because of her age, she says she knew she wouldn’t get pregnant – so didn’t think about protection.

But she also hadn’t given a second thought to HIV. ‘I didn’t know anything about it – I didn’t know it was even possible to catch it,’ she explained.

Stunned: Ms Dilley told amazed This Morning hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby that the risks had never crossed her mind – because she had never known a white person to get HIV

When quizzed by Philip Scofield about how sex education campaigns and messages had passed her by, she admitted they simply had.

Within a few months, the relationship between Ms Dilley and Simon was over – and shortly afterwards she began to feel unwell.

‘I had swollen glands, a sore throat, a temperature and couldn’t eat properly,’ she recalled.

‘It was like a really severe bout of the flu.’

After tests were inconclusive, it was suggested – to her surprise – she should take an HIV test.

‘I thought “why?”,’ she explained.

 
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Comments (95)

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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

Lynn,

Scotland, United Kingdom,

47 minutes ago

so missed the news…and watched Shirley Valentine…

Don Keeballs,

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands,

49 minutes ago

Oh dear !

Mike_P86,

Manchester, United Kingdom,

49 minutes ago

dear lord, talk about living under a rock…

AllyS,

Dundee,

1 hour ago

Find it really hard to believe she didn’t know she was at risk. I’m 2 years older than her and I still remember the early ’80?s when Aids/hiv was all over the news. You couldn’t miss it. There was an enormous amount of publicity. She has 3 kids herself, does that mean she has never spoken to them about safe sex not just being to prevent pregnancy. As for “because of her age she knew she wouldn’t get pregnant” – hmmm.

janeybaby75,

llanelli, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

Don’t talk rot woman. You are 48. You are old enough to remember the HIV and AIDS advertisements in the 80?s. Just admit you were irresponsible.

Karen,

Bedford,

1 hour ago

I can’t believe she was so ignorant. I am the same age as her (48) and I remember vividly the health warnings regarding AIDS in the mid 1980s and as for falling pregnant I was 42 when my youngest (planned) child was born so at 40 it was certainly possible for her to get pregnant. Just to let the americans who use this site know there are some intelligent people in the UK but they don’t make the news!

ReggieHammond,

Bristol, Uk,

1 hour ago

The end result of turning half wits into celebrities , once upon a time people used to think about what came out their mouths, now all they do is. Open gob and all sorts of rubbish comes out playing ignorant is not a valid excuse.

JumboMumbo,

London, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

If this hadn’t been captured on TV I would be assuming it was April 1st. I mean come on, seriously? 40 years old and not a clue.

Mrs Miggins,

Somewhere Damp, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

so she thought at age 38 when she had this affair, she couldn’t get pregnant, is she mad??

Bettafish,

kent,

1 hour ago

Idiot. And she must have lived through the 80s. That’s not naïve, it’s pure stupidity. As for HIV not being a death sentence, that’s true as long as the virus load stays low but that can and does change, and then it won’t be the virus itself, but the infection running rampant through your body. It’s annoying people trying to sanitise this virus, it is still a very dangerous disease, modern medicine may be able to control it, but that is only providing conditions stay favourable. STDs must be respected especially now so many of them are becoming immune to treatments and therefore even more dangerous, at the end of the day no matter how much people try and pretend otherwise most of these cases are through people being stupid and irresponsible.

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