Magic and Cookie Johnson (Image: CBN News)
Former NBA star, Magic Johnson, has said that he is grateful to God as he celebrates his blessings despite being diagnosed of HIV diagnosis 30 years ago.
“God has really blessed me. Today marks 30 years living with HIV so the message resonated with me in such a tremendous way. I thank the Lord for keeping me, giving me strength, and guiding me for 62 years but especially the last 30. Through it all I learned to trust in Jesus and I learned to trust in God!” he said in a tweet.
In an interview with ‘’CBS Mornings,’’ the 62-year-old former NBA Lakers point guard, alongside his wife, Cookie explained how he felt when he got the news of his HIV status. He said that during that period, people were not properly educated about the virus and they thought that he could die at any point. This made him devastated.
"You just sit there and say, 'What does this mean? Am I going to die? I had to really learn a lot about the disease, HIV as well as AIDS. I had to make sure that I was open-minded enough to ask a lot of questions, go get a lot of information from different people,” Johnson said.
The most difficult part was him disclosing the information to his wife and he didn’t want to pass the virus to his wife or his children. When they had their son, he stated that he felt relieved when the result came out as HIV negative.
"It was hard because I loved her so much, and I hated to hurt her. I was scared to death. I wanted to make sure that she was going to be OK, the baby was going to be OK, and then I could move forward with trying to make sure I was going to be OK,’’ he added.
As part of his daily routine, Johnson said that he takes a series of medications. From taking his medication thrice daily, he now takes it once daily. Presently, he said the virus cannot be detected in the sense that the anti-retroviral treatment has reduced the HIV virus to such a low level that it's not detectible by standard blood tests.
So far, Johnson launched the Magic Johnson Foundation to become a spokesperson for HIV and AIDS awareness. He is a father, grandfather, businessman, philanthropist and the CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises. During his NBA career, Johnson won five championship titles, 11 All-Star declarations and three league MVP awards.
Post a Comment