Volunteer Comforts HIV/AIDS Patients

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― She's been in the crowd at almost every one of San Francisco's 23 annual AIDS walks, but you probably didn't notice. Cath Sullivan volunteers behind the scenes, serving HIV and AIDS patients.

"Maybe someone's not healthy enough to go to the grocery store, I'll take their list," Cath explains. "Couple of people I do laundry for, change the sheets, very, very, very basic things."

Before the annual AIDS walk even began, Cath was volunteering to help those diagnosed with the deadly virus. She started when one of her best friends tested HIV positive.

"Nobody knew a lot about AIDS in 1985," she remembers. "People were petrified. I was going into Ward 5 at San Francisco General -- people had masks on. We didn't have enough information, so the need was to hold somebody's hand."

When Project Open Hand began delivering meals to San Francisco HIV and AIDS patients who were too sick to get up, Cath was among the first volunteers to expand food deliveries to Alameda.

She says, "There isn't a human being on the planet that doesn't need a helping hand. And maybe that helping hand is just sitting and listening to somebody for twenty minutes while they pour out their heart, or maybe that helping hand is opening a can of soup."

Sometimes it hurts: she's lost many friends to the virus. She's facilitated almost 1400 grief groups.

"The losses are difficult because you build relationships, there's an honesty, a trust, a rapport," she says.

Fellow volunteers Lew Brentano and Bill Dow say Cath inspires them.

"What impresses me most about what she does is she just keeps going all the time," Lew says. "She doesn't stop. She motivates us to keep going, too."

Bill adds, "The more you love, the more people you help, the better life is, the more full your life is."

As Cath continues to volunteer, she wishes she could change the stigma still attached to AIDS.

"AIDS is still in many communities a disease of judgment. So when people know you have AIDS, they walk away from you."

But not Cath. For holding the hands of countless HIV and AIDS patients, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Cath Sullivan.

By Sharon Chin

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