Monday 22 October, 2001
Rebekka Armstrong: The face of Aids
Few would look at a young, seemingly healthy, glamourous model and think of a fatal disease but former Playboy Playmate, Rebekka Armstrong, has been living with HIV for over a decade.
In a dramatic career change, Armstrong now spends her time educating others about the disease. Speaking to Outlook she describes the journey of discovery that has led her from sex symbol to safe-sex speaker.
Rebekka Armstrong must have looked the very picture of health. Not only had she been Playboy magazine's Miss September 1986, she was also a successful lingerie and swimwear model and she lived a celebrity lifestyle.
Then in 1989 she had an HIV test. It came back positive. She believes she caught the virus from a boyfriend at age 16.
For five years she managed to keep it secret, taking the drug AZT, the only remedy around at the time for HIV-Aids. But at the same time she had to deal with crippling side effects and the alcohol and drugs she'd resorted to as her means of coping.
Now her life has changed yet again. She speaks openly about her status and now lectures to schoolchildren all over the United States. She has recently lectured in Britain, “putting a face to the virus”, as she describes it.
To her young audience, Armstrong is a far cry from the mental image that they may have of an HIV sufferer. She explains:
‘It’s shocking for many people around the world [to think] that this could be the face of Aids. I think there is still a big misconception that heterosexual women, or women in general, don’t contract HIV or Aids. For most young adults it’s shocking to find out that I contracted the virus at the age that most of them are.’
Diagnosis
At the age of 18, Armstrong moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in glamour modeling. Spending her time working on swimwear and lingerie shoots, she soon became quite successful and by September 1986 she appeared as the centerfold in Playboy magazine.
As befitting a glamour girl, Armstrong led a fast life. She worked and played hard - traveling around the world on modeling assignments and partying at Hugh Hefner’s mansion.
So when in 1989 she began to feel tired she simply thought that she had been burning the candle at both ends. At a routine medical she requested an HIV test and to her complete amazement the result came back positive. Armstrong explains:
‘I was caught off guard. I knew absolutely nothing about HIV and Aids except what I was seeing in the media, which was a horrific, emaciated, lesion ridden, infested type death.’
Secret life
Armstrong was 22-years-old when she was diagnosed. After visiting a series of doctors she was prescribed various drugs and decided that her infection would be her own "dark secret".
Telling no one, she continued to work and party as she had before. But the effects of the prescribed drugs, mixed with the alcohol and amphetamines that she was increasingly using, began to take their toll. She explains:
‘Those little party days, or party months, would be interrupted by an HIV related illness because I was hurting myself and lowering and suppressing my immune system with drugs and alcohol. HIV would say, “hey party time. I’m going in. I’m running amok”, and I would get really sick.’
After reaching rock bottom Armstrong decided to kill herself. Fortunately for the many people who she now helps she was unsuccessful and on recovering from her suicide attempt she decided to change her life.
Living with HIV
After attending a seminar for HIV positive women, she took the decision to speak about her infection to a magazine. It was the first time that Armstrong had talked about it and she has since gone on to explain to thousands of people about the dangers of HIV and Aids and living with the disease.
The lectures drain her both emotionally and physically. She suffers from extreme fatigue and, more recently, an increase in her viral load has meant that she is experiencing a number of debilitating effects. She explains:
| ‘I get these headaches which are kinda taking over my face and I have to close one eye while I’m doing a lecture … As I sit here today my virus is definitely multiplying.’ | |
Armstrong has managed her illness with a variety of drugs but she is now resistant to several combinations. There are still more that she can try but the process is long and arduous, as she explains:
‘I’m not looking forward to the side effects and I’m not looking forward to the downtime, because it just makes the virus that much more of a reality to me… It’s a bit of a reminder that you are sick and that you do have something in your body that is trying to kill you.’
But however frightening and distressing new treatments may be, Armstrong will continue to fight against her illness.
By refusing to suffer in silence, she may not only be the face of HIV but the voice too. A role that she adopts with relish as she comments:
‘By me giving, I get back so much more. There is not a word big enough to describe how much I get back by giving.’
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British director, Antonia Bird, plans to make a film of Armstrong’s life.
Speaking recently to the British newspaper, The Guardian has remarked:
‘Rebekka is an extraordinary woman, whose life has been full of drama.'
'Her story will touch every woman who watches it. Over and above any specific issues it’s about being female and surviving in a male–dominated world.’ |
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