Blood transfusion taints 62-year-old woman’s future DOREEN MILLMAN is infected with HIV. You can keep your pity. By Kate Zimmerman News Reporter “We're all terminal,” said the 62-year-old Deep Cove grandmoth- er, adding that HIV can happen to anyone. According to Millman, the fact that she contracted HIV through a blood transfusion doesn’t make her any more of an innocent victim than an HIV-infected gay man, intravenous drug-user or anyone else whose behavior might be per- ceived as “risky.” Millman suggests that people who wind up receiving blood trans- fusions during surgery usually did something questionable to need the operation — heart patients con- tributed to their condition through their Giet, cancer patients through other lifestyle choices, and so on. She herself had a double mas- tectomy in 1979. In 1982 she decid- ed to undergo reconstructive surgery for her breasts. It was dur- ing this elective surgery that she received tainted blood. She had no idea she had been infected with HIV until 1988, when the Red Cross contacted her doctor. “It's quite a disease, 1’l tell you,” she said. “The virus just gets into that nice warm blood and you can’t wash it out.” In 1990, after some discussion with her husband Bob, Millman decided to ge public with her ill- ness — the first woman in the Vancouver area to do so. Using the pseudonym “Rose,” Millman beep Cove grandn NEWS photo Mike Wakefield DOREEN MILLMAN always wears her AIDS awareness brooch, and she’s net ashamed to teli strangers she’s HIV-positive. appeared on CBC Radio. It wasn't as if she'd been hiding her HIV status. Family and friends knew from the start. She'd also become involved with AIDS Abduction scares surface in N. Van A NORTH Vancouver mother is warning the community about two men she thinks attempted to snatch her toddler on Sept. 12 at Waterfront Park. By Anna Marie D’Angelo News Reporter “I’ve gone over it a million times,” said Cathy Pacheco a week after the incident. “I’m not a naive mother. I knew this could happen, but I wasn't aware how fast it could take. “From whea we noticed them until they were gone was a matter of seconds,” Pacheco said her daughter, age two, and son, age four, were near a slide at the North Vancouver City park during the mid-afternoon. Pacheco, 32, and her girlfriend were sitting chatting on a bench as the children played. They were the only people around until two Asian men appeared from behind them. One man sat beside Pacheco, while the other walked up near the kids. “remember thinking. you're CALL US: 983-2208 too close, buddy. Go sit somewhere else,” said the mother. Pacheco said she sensed danger when the other man, in grabbing distance of her children, appeared to be focused on her daughter. “] automatically jumped up and went to get my kids,” said Pacheco. Her equally alarmed friend was also racing towards the youngsters. Pacheco said the man on the bench followed. Pacheco was frantically looking for someone else to help them in the deserted park. With a firm hold on her chil- dren, she looked at the two men standing beside her. She said the men walked east on the paved path near the waterfront and disappeared up Chesterfield Avenue within seconds. The men are described as being in their mid-30s with average build and straight hair. The men were clean shaven. The day after the Waterfront Park incident. a white male report- edly tried to entice children into his car near the £900-block of Cedar Village Court by Kirkstone Park in Lynn Valley. The car is described as a small, blue, two-door vehicle. Vancouver and the Persons With AIDS Society, organizations which she said have been helpful to her. She always wears a red ribbon brooch and informs anyone who Pee ete eda torres 88 bees Friday, September 23, 1994 -- North Shore News ~ 3 10ther IV infection THE AIDS Walk, the Jargest annual fundraising event for the B.C. Persons With AIDS (BCPWA) Society, begins at 11 a.m. Sunday st Stanley Park’s . ‘ Second Beach... Registration begins at A 68:30 a.m. Entertainment A begins af 9 a.m.; the opening ceremonies take place at-10 a.m.; an aerobic warm-up @ happens at 10:45 am. : - : For information, call A 681-2122, ext. 247." # Registration and spon- 8. sorship forms are ayailable --§ at al? Starbucks and partici- {° pating Body Shop locations: ° A throughout. .the Lover. § f..Mainiand ‘and. wherever . fj _ AG. Hair products are sold.’ B : Money raised through. - the walk supports the pro-. § grams and services of the * fj BCPWA Society. Services '-f include alternative health. j | therapies and peer coun- a selling, . asks about it that it signifies AIDS awareness and that she is HIV-posi- tive. : “There isn't anybody who knows me that doesn’t know Pve got the virus,” she said. “I'm the grandmother with AIDS.” Last year she decided to drop the pseudonym and broadcast her status to the world. She’ll do it again Sunday when she speaks at AIDS WALK '94, Vancouver's eighth annual walk in support of programs and services for people living with HIV and AIDS. Milhman’s message to the world is simple: “Please have some com- passion.” CATHY PACHECO gives her daughter a hug. The North Vancouver morn believes her child was an abduction target. 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