Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

WORLD AIDS DAY

ASK Wellness helps Kamloops community commemorate World AIDS Day

Dec 2, 2019 | 3:31 PM

KAMLOOPS — Sunday was an important day for those in our community living with HIV and AIDS. December 1 is World AIDS Day, and every year ASK Wellness holds a special event to remember those who have passed as a result of the infection.

Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day is meant to bring people together in the fight against HIV and AIDS and to remember those who died from AIDS-related illnesses. Cookie Reimer says she has a long list of those who have been killed as a result of the disease.

“I have twelve heroes,” Reimer says. “I’ve lost over a hundred folks in my life, and, yes, I have heroes.”

Over the past 29 years, members of the Kamloops community have come together to recognize World AIDS Day. For all of those years, Reimer has been there to make sure every person who attends is well fed.

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“She loves everyone,” Jodi Hansen explains. “She loves to cook, she loves to feed the hungry, and she’s just adoring. A very adoring person.”

“I’m inspired every day by the people and their struggles,” Reimer says. “I have lots of friends that infected, affected, effected. I know the struggle, and I acknowledge it. I just want people to look forward.”

For those living with HIV and AIDS, the event is an opportunity to acknowledge their struggle. It’s also a chance to recognize those who’ve helped them along their journey.

“It’s no longer what it was back in the very beginning,” Joshua Higgins said of his HIV journey. “Thank God for people like Cookie, there, and ASK Wellness. They’re actually able to get us to where we are at now.”

Jodi Hansen was diagnosed when she was just 21 years old and said without the support she gets from her community, she might not be alive.

“Jesus first and foremost has helped me through everything,” Hansen told CFJC Today. “But ASK Wellness has got me on my feet, has come to appointments with me, and was just there when I wasn’t even there for myself.”

While treatment options have improved for HIV and AIDS patients, there’s still a stigma surrounding the infection. For Cookie, there’s only one way to dispel the many surrounding HIV and AIDs:

“We need education around it because just by touching someone, they can’t get [HIV],” she tells CFJC Today. “Education; that’s the biggest, biggest change.”

Remembering those who haven’t survived is an essential part of World AIDS Day, as well. For those who live with HIV and AIDS, it’s an opportunity to show appreciation for the help ASK Wellness continues to provide them every day.