My Dream to Trample AIDS: What Everyone at Any Age Should Know about HIV/AIDS

Don Carrel has been living with AIDS since 1995. He suspects he was infected with HIV in 1981. Thirty years later, less than 2 percent of people with HIV have lived long enough to share their stories. In 1995, while lying in a hospital bed with Pneumocystis pneumonia, the most common form of death for someone with AIDS, Don had a riveting dream that dramatically altered his life and, perhaps the future lives of more than 100,000 teenagers. After making a full recovery, Don set out to teach young people what they needed to know about HIV prevention so that they wouldn't wind up in his shoes. His lofty goal: to stomp out AIDS. After 16 years, Don has collected thousands of thank-you letters from teens and adults who have heard his compelling presentations. Today, Don hopes to reach an even wider audience with his book, My Dream to Trample AIDS. Don's original goal was to put his presentation in book form, but it ended up being much more. Don says, "My story is about love, friends, family, grief, despair, hope, death and faith." It's also a detailed primer on HIV, as expressed in the subtitle: "What everyone of any age should know about HIV/AIDS." Don devotes a chapter to the history of HIV/AIDS, including the compelling theory as to why the virus first hit the gay community in the United States before it spread into the general population. Don's book summarizes current statistics on HIV/AIDS. It warns of populations most at risk of infection today: people of color, youth and even the elderly. It instructs readers on how to be tested for HIV. In very frank language, the book describes the risks of various sexual activities and even how to use a condom "properly." Don chronicles HIV treatment and his drug regimen for the past 25 years, including the cost, side effects and possibility, or lack thereof, of a cure for HIV/AIDS. Most compelling are Don's gut-wrenching stories about how HIV/AIDS has affected him and the profound sense of loss he's experienced repeatedly with the deaths of many friends from AIDS. He explains what it feels like to have HIV/AIDS and how it has shaped all facets of his life: physically, emotionally and spiritually. He asks his closest family members and friends to share their feelings when they first learned of his diagnosis. He also includes hundreds of quotes from students who have heard him speak. Last but not least, Don explains why he believes he has survived - and thrived - thanks to a powerful directive from "the messenger." Don says, "Having HIV is a huge blessing in my life." Don writes that this experience has helped him make a dramatic shift in how he views himself and has strengthened his belief in God.