Meeting Smit in Cape Town Sea Point, one is immediately struck by his amazing physique’€¦bulging muscles and a six-pack that you normally only see on airbrushed models in glossy magazines. But Smit is the real thing.

‘€œI was on a road to disaster. I have been judged, rejected and I did everything my way and it all ended up being a disaster. Ending up at the (Ivan Toms) clinic has saved me, no doubt,’€ says Smit.

Smit is one of hundreds of men who are part of the Health4Men project at the Ivan Toms Centre for Men’€™s Health in Woodstock.

Health4men is a special interest project of the Anova Health Institute which receives support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Health4men is described as a ‘€œholistic project targeting the sexual health care needs of men who have sex with men (MSM).   The Ivan Toms Clinic is one of three clinics nationally that deal with the clinical aspects of the programme.

‘€œHealth4Men has made my life so much easier. They get me, my doctor Kevin gets me. He listens to me, he trusts me and he doesn’€™t judge me. Going to a public clinic and having to deal with the stigma, the judgement, sitting among such very sick people who are coughing, having to deal with doctors and nurses who hold it against you that you have had unprotected sex or used drugs,’€ says Smit.

‘€œSitting in those queues at the clinics and hospitals, it doesn’€™t make you feel very proud of what you have or who you are,’€ he adds.

Smit, who is on his 3rd line of anti-retroviral drugs, having failed to adhere to his drugs in the past, says he has no doubt that he would have been dead had he not had access to this specialist service.

Five years on antiretrovirals, Smit said he never used condoms when he started working as a ‘€œrent boy’€ at the age of 15. ‘€œThere were lots of married men and using a condom was simply not part of it,’€ he recalls.

Smit said he knew very soon that ‘€œsomething was wrong’€.

‘€œBut I was in denial when I found out I was HIV-positive, ending up very ill.’€

‘€œHaving to then access the health system and tell a doctor you have had anal sex with another man, that’€™s not easy. They also declined me three times for antiretrovirals because of my drug abuse past, I had to beg and eventually they allowed me,’€ says Smit, rubbing his clean shaved head.

‘€œLook, if the Ivan Toms clinic closed down tomorrow and we had to go back to the mainstream health services, I probably wouldn’€™t go back. What we get there, you won’€™t get anywhere else. It’€™s clean, it’€™s brilliant and we receive a service from brilliant specialists.

‘€œThey have looked after me, they treat me like royalty,’€ says Smit.

Smit’€™s viral load is currently undetectable and his CD4 count is around 650. ‘€œI deserve a healthy life,’€ he smiles.