Twitter
Couldn't connect with Twitter
Personal Stories

Experiences of the old treatment only

Here you’ll find participants’ accounts of hepatitis C diagnosis, living with hepatitis C, treatment and cure. The people and stories were carefully selected to highlight diversity in backgrounds and experiences. While this website is not able to tell every possible story of hepatitis C and treatment in Australia, it can show just how different people and their experiences are. In the stories can be found details of the many important concerns and circumstances our participants negotiated in living with and having treatment for hepatitis C.

The stories presented here rely on participant reports of overdose. Some experiences may not conform to medical definitions of overdose, and some responses described may not reflect medical advice.

While these narratives were written from the interview transcripts and rely on participants’ own words, some aspects have been paraphrased to improve coherence and readability. In making these changes we have worked hard to remain faithful to the original meaning and intentions. Some experiences may also be presented in other sections of the website, using more detailed quotations.

Brooke
Brooke was diagnosed with hepatitis C in the late 1990s. On receiving her diagnosis, she worried that she might die and that her children would have to grow up without her.
Cal
Cal was diagnosed with non-A, non-B hepatitis in the early 1990s, when he was 17. He remembers calling his mother straight away, and she started researching hepatitis and treatment options for him.
Cassandra
Cassandra was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1994. Concerns about the possible impact of the old, interferon-based medications on her work led her to postpone treatment for many years
Derek
First diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis C in 1991, Derek was later diagnosed with hepatitis C again two further times (in 1998 and 2012).
Giovanna
Giovanna was diagnosed with hepatitis C in the mid-1990s. Experiences in a hepatitis C support group put her off interferon-based treatment
James
James was first diagnosed with hepatitis C when he lived in the United Kingdom around 2000 but didn’t have treatment until he emigrated to Australia in 2015.
Lee
A blood test in 1999 indicated that Lee had hepatitis C antibodies, but later tests suggested that he didn’t have an active disease and had cleared the virus spontaneously
Rebecca
Rebecca acquired hepatitis C from a needlestick injury in 2010
Scott
In his late thirties Scott decided to have a hepatitis C test after feeling that his ‘liver wasn’t quite right’
Stuart
Stuart can’t remember exactly when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C, but thinks he acquired it through a childhood medical procedure
Trish
Trish was diagnosed with hepatitis C in about 1999