Nancy Maumela* (42) first had to get totally sick and bedridden in 2000 before it was discovered that she was HIV positive.

“It started with me losing my appetite for all kinds of food, feeling dizzy and cold all the time,” she says, thinking back to 2000. “I visited a local clinic, where I was treated for the obvious symptoms, but I continued losing weight very quickly.”

It was only then that Nancy decided to call her husband, who was working in Mamelodi, and told him that she was by no means getting any better. They agreed that she should rather take a taxi to Pretoria.

“Once I had arrived there, my husband took me to several prophets and sangomas. He believed I was being bewitched by jealous people. Herbal roots and unknown medicinal concoctions the inyangas mixed and prescribed for me seemed to worsen the problem.”

Nancy reveals that she knew about HIV and Aids all along, and that even though she had suspected that she might have contracted the HI-virus, she didn't exactly want to admit that she needed to get tested. At one stage, she had become so sick that she could hardly walk. She visited a local clinic and the hospital. “They examined me and took blood samples,” she says. “They prescribed some pills, of course for obvious ailments like headache, loss of appetite and dizziness.” They didn't say anything about her HIV status, though.

“One day I went for a consultation at the Mamelodi Hospital” and asked to know what the nature of the illness was “which was eating me up". According to her, the doctor just threw the papers containing her HIV results at her. “He said I should stop pretending that I did not know what the problem was. That was not a good way to tell me I was HIV positive.”

Now that she knew her status, it was difficult for her to accept that she was HIV positive. “I ask myself many questions and was depressed to such an extent that I felt like I had lost my mind.”

It took her almost three years of living in what she now calls “denial” before she was booked in to access treatment at the hospital. “When I saw the emblem of HIV on television, I switched the TV set off, but my sister encouraged me to remain strong or else I would die and leave my children as orphans.”

Her very sister then told her to watch a TV programme called Kaelo. “Soon I realised that the presenter was, and still is, HIV positive and living positively,” she remembers back with a smile now. “From that day I was so relieved that I even decided on the spot that I would be open about my HIV status. I even started to attend support groups and started to disclose my status publicly.”

Nancy's family managed to buy her some treatment from a chemist for a period of four years. “I used to take regimen 1A (3TC, D4T, stockrin), which all amounted to R2 500 per month,” she says. “When we discovered that I had contracted the disease, my CD4 count was 35. Now it is 1 200! Can you believe it?”

She says that the only negative side of things was that she had to bear the side effects as a result of using anti-retrovirals. “I should first admit that ARVs are helpful for someone like me who is living with HIV,” she says. “I have a healthy body, as you can see, but the side effects are a let-down: they gave me a big stomach, flat shape, especially my bum … I had to switch my treatment from stavudine to TDF."

The mother of two sons, one born in 1984 and the other 1994, was blessed with another baby son in 2006. The child is not HIV positive, and is strong. “All my sons and relatives give me great support,” she says. “They are the pillars of my strength. When I got sick, many friends and relatives chose to desert me, but the true ones remained. I now understand what they mean when they say when days are dark, friends are few.”

The Treatment Action Campaign have been advocating for the introduction of “fixed dose combination” treatment (FDC) for people living with the HI-virus. FDC is a combination of more than one medicine, combined into a single tablet, which should then be taken once or twice a day, instead of consuming probably three to six pills every day.

“FDC contains all the individual medicines that we are currently taking,” says Nancy. “I think we need FDC, because it is going to be easier for me to use it.”

*Name has been changed.