A time to look back, to look ahead, to love, to hope — AIDS Walk Philly a reminder of the work yet to be done

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The reasons to participate in the city’s annual AIDS Walk are as varied and diverse as the participants themselves. What is common to all, however, is a commitment to raises donations and to draw attention to HIV and AIDS and the people affected by the disease — and to continue to drive forward life-saving advancements in treatment and prevention.

“When HIV first hit Philadelphia, I had friends dropping day by day. We never knew who we were going to see one day and not the next day.”

Jay Johnson is one of hundreds of people who gathered Sunday morning in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the annual AIDS Walk Philly . Johnson has participated in the AIDS Walk for 30 years.

“As a person that’s living with HIV, it’s always important for me to participate in this. It’s a time to give back to our community and help those living with HIV and AIDS.

There are more than 18,000 people in the Philadelphia region living with HIV, and funds raised from the AIDS Walk will go toward helping the most vulnerable among them get the resources they need.

“I’m doing this walk for my friends that I lost to this disease. It’s constantly on my mind, and I do this walk for them, because unfortunately they lost the battle,” said Johnson.

The 5K walk along Kelly Drive can be a sobering reminder of how many lives have been lost to AIDS, says Seamus Tyler with AIDS Fund Philly .

“We’re here to show that we are going to continue fighting until this epidemic is over. We’re standing up to stigma,” Tyler said. “We’re not going to stop until the work is done.”

Tyler says the day of the AIDS Walk is also a reason to be hopeful and to celebrate decades of progress in HIV research and medicine.

“People can take a pill every day that will prevent them from getting the virus. And people who are in medical care — they can become undetectable,” Tyler said. “We use a phrase: U=U. Undetectable equals untransmittable.”

Over its 38-year history, AIDS Walk Philly has raised $19 million.