‘Same Love’ producer reveals his mother is HIV-positive

‘Same Love’ producer reveals his mother is HIV-positive

MUSIC producer Ryan Lewis, best-known for collaborating with Macklemore on worldwide marriage equality anthem Same Love and other hit songs, has revealed that his mother has been living with HIV for 30 years.

The news came as he launched the 30/30 Project, a not-for-profit organisation to raise funds to build health care centres worldwide.

Lewis said his mother was diagnosed with HIV after receiving a blood transfusion during complications during the birth of his older sister in 1984.

Lewis also has been seen with the international AIDS symbol, a red ribbon, tattooed on his arm in honour of his mother.

On the 30/30 Project’s website, he explains:

When she was finally diagnosed (1990), she was given only a few years to live. By that time, she had already given birth to my sister Laura and me.

We each had a 25 per cent chance of being born HIV-positive, but we were extremely fortunate (today, the risk of a mother passing HIV to her baby is two per cent or less if she is taking medication).

Thanks to advanced medicine and healthcare available here in the U.S, my mom has lived despite her odds.

To honour the thirty years my mom has been a survivor, our family is raising funds to build health centres worldwide that will stand strong for at least thirty years. We’re calling it the 30/30 Project.

The first health care centre to be built by the money raised will be in Nsambe, in the Neno district of Malawi, where 1 in 10 people in the region are believed to be HIV-positive.

The Project’s aim is also to provide health care to those who need it the most by raising $100,000 by May 21.

 

 

For details of the project visit the 30/30 Project Page

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