Wilcox has been living with HIV for almost 30 years. He first got sick in 1979, when the AIDS crisis was unheard of, and a few years later was diagnosed with GRID - or "gay-related immune deficiency" - which is what doctors first named the condition as they struggled to figure out what was causing it. It was a time when people thought HIV was a death sentence. Wilcox says he never thought he would live so long. But as decades went by, Wilcox became what's known as a long-term survivor.
Those years weren't always easy. In 2007, Wilcox was very sick, physically and emotionally. He was walking with a cane due to neuropathy, a condition that can be associated with AIDS and affects the nerves, causing pain, numbness and stiffness in the extremities, and he was depressed.
"I was just waiting to die," he says.
His doctor, Ben Young, from a new AIDS clinic called Rocky Mountain Cares that focuses on long-term survivors, suggested Wilcox pick up skating again. Wilcox, who is now 50, had been a figure skater when he was younger, but it had been a long 34 years since he had skated.
"I decided to change my life. I didn't want to die," Wilcox says. So he got back onto the ice. "It was difficult. I took it very slow. The stretching and movements helped me."
[...]
Wilcox says that skating is not as much about the competition as it is the purpose it gives him.
"We're not as competitive as the younger guys," he says. "We're just out there having a good time."
Read the full profile at Out Front Colorado HERE.
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