In 2016, I was a 22-year-old with no health insurance and the only place that would give me access to no-cost medical care was Planned Parenthood. They offered HIV testing to me for free even though I wasn't there for HIV testing.

I never expected when they called me a week later with my results that I would discover I was HIV positive. I was devastated. I was also away from home, and couldn't get into treatment right away. I was sure my life was over. That I would never be able to achieve my goals, have a normal relationship, have a family. I didn't tell anyone about my diagnosis because I was afraid of what they would think of me. I was afraid of what life with HIV would look like.

When I met with my doctor for the first time after my diagnosis he was hopeful. He told me that we had caught it early, and I could get into treatment.

HIV is life-threatening. The threat is not so much in having the disease — not these days when treatment can make the virus undetectable in your body and lowers or even stops transmission to others. The threat is really in not knowing you have the disease.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund fights to protect access to STI testing. Because of Planned Parenthood, I know that I have HIV. I found out long before it had a chance to impact my health with life-threatening complications. And because of that, and the treatment program I am in, I'm still living the life I want to live.

I am a young professional. I have a beautiful man who loves me. I can travel. I can do any and everything I had planned for myself before I was diagnosed with HIV.

By giving me access to health care and offering me something I didn't even know I needed, Planned Parenthood saved my life.

When you give to Planned Parenthood Action Fund this December, you are helping save lives. Planned Parenthood Action Fund fights for laws and policies that make the kind of care that I received when I needed it most accessible to all. Please, make your year-end contribution today.