Student shares life-changing conversation with Prince Harry
In a recent interview with the CBC, English student Mercy has explained how Prince Harry played a role in her journey to self-acceptance as a young person living with the HIV virus.
Mercy received the 2017 Diana Legacy Award for youth leadership from Princes Harry and William for her work as a peer youth counsellor at the Children with HIV Association in the U.K.
"Prince Harry had said, you know, you should consider coming out … I think it would be really good for you," Mercy said, recounting a conversation with him.
In the article, Mercy also discusses how both princes are continuing the work of their Mother Princess Diana to erase the stigma of HIV, and why this is so important.
In 2016, Prince Harry took a HIV test live on Facebook, in order to demonstrate how easy the process of being tested is. The prince has also spent considerable time in Botswana and Lesotho, where he created a charity in 2006 to help children in extreme poverty and those with HIV.
Mercy said that their Mother Princess Diana worked "to sort of break these barriers, and you can really see that in her two sons. Now they are doing that themselves….saying to the public it's OK to go and get tested … there's like a kind of shame taken away from it.”
Mercy has used her own experience of growing up with HIV to drive her commitment and pursuit of equality for young people living with the virus, and has been campaigning since the age of 16. In February, she was shortlisted for a St David Award- the highest accolade that the Welsh Government can present to a civilian.
Mercy will be interviewed live from Windsor with BBC 1 at 10.55 am tomorrow during the royal wedding coverage. Representing CHIVA (Children's HIV Association), one of the couple’s 7 personally chosen charities, Mercy will be discussing the wedding, Prince Harry, and the work of CHIVA.