Andreas Georgiou’s younger brother is also the director of photography of the “Famagusta” series.
What was your childhood like, growing up with your family in Ayia Napa and Paralimni?
It was hard. For psychological reasons, for rejection reasons, for many reasons.
Rejection, why?
Because of my illness, as a carrier of the HIV virus that I was, which eventually killed my mother and, several years later, my father. People were afraid. We are talking regarding another era, of course, regarding incomplete – or even incorrect – information regarding the virus, regarding rumors that made life difficult for patients – I am not wronging anyone. But I was a child! That I was born with it. And I felt like people didn’t want me. Some were even afraid to approach me. But I found the strength and moved on. And here I am.
Were you given medication as a child?
Yes. And that was always the big “fight” with my grandmother, who was raising me. Because they were strong drugs and they tasted awful. But my grandmother was always there: Pushing me, along with my food, to take my medicine, with a watch in my hand, so that not a minute would be missed from the time I should have taken my medicine . If it wasn’t for my grandmother to do this, I sure wouldn’t be alive!
Was there a risk when you were born that you wouldn’t survive?
When I was born I also had bronchopneumonia. And combined with the virus I was born with, the doctors considered me a “done deal”, but – in some magical way, which my grandmother attributed to a miracle – I overcame the danger. The doctors told my grandmother, at first, that “he’ll live until he’s four”, then it became “until he’s five”, then “until he’s seven”, but in the meantime science was advancing and making leaps and bounds in everything it was regarding HIV – I’m now 32 years old, I’ve had my children who are healthy, and the virus is now undetectable in my body, so non-contagious.
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#shocking #story #brother #Andreas #Georgios
