Lisa Marie Miller was five months pregnant and living in a homeless shelter when she found out she was HIV positive.
Ten years later, the North Tonawanda resident still feels anger toward the disease.
Miller discovered the infection had progressed to AIDS the day after Christmas in 2005.
"I wouldn't want anybody to go through what I've been through," Miller said. "It's a struggle every day for me to get up."
Miller wants others to know her story.
The mother of three was one of dozens of people who quietly marked Worlds AIDS Day with a prayer and a candlelight vigil at the brink of Niagara Falls on Monday night. The falls were bathed in red to represent the red ribbon of AIDS Awareness and blue in support of those living with the disease.
Miller told her story during a memorial service that followed in St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
Life during the last 10 years has meant a continual struggle to survive. At times, she did not take her medication and came perilously close to dying. She said she has been given her last rites twice.
She is thankful that her daughter -- whom she was pregnant with when she discovered she was HIV positive -- is healthy. But she knows it has impacted her children.
"Nobody wants to talk about it. I feel in Niagara County it always gets shoved under the rug," Miller said. "Nobody wants to hear about it."
Those gathered in St. Peter's Church on Monday were ready to talk about the disease.
The lights were dimmed and members of the Niagara County AIDS Task Force slowly read the names of 40 friends and family members who had died from AIDS. Teenagers from Planned Parenthood's Stars program acted out an educational skit about HIV.
Task force members urged others not to stop focusing on prevention and education despite the strides that have been made.
"I think it's important not just to remember those who have died over the years, but to celebrate those who have lived," said James R. Dreher, program assistant for AIDS Network of Western New York. "AIDS is not a death sentence anymore."
The event also marked the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, but
the year has also been one of concern for those working to bring awareness to AIDS and HIV.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in August that it had previously underestimated the number of new HIV infections that occur nationally each year.
Worldwide estimates of 33 million people living with HIV or AIDS in 2007 are "staggering," said Rev. Kevin Dobbs of Christ Redemption Church.
"It's a mind boggling and a staggering number that the world has looked at, has faced and still sometimes doesn't really know how to handle," Dobbs said.
He urged Niagara County residents to continue the discussion.
"What can we do?" Dobbs asked. "We can do what we're doing now. We can be conscious of it."
Miller, the 37-year-old mother who is living with AIDS, credits doctors at Erie County Medical Center for helping her survive. She said she may not be alive today if she was not urged to get tested a decade ago.
"I want the awareness to get out there," Miller said. "You've got to get tested."
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