OTTAWA A Canadian AIDS activist who once tried to auction his corpse on E-bay and whose HIV-infected blood was used in a series of paintings has turned to the Internet again in a radical approach to raise awareness of his deadly disease.
Richard Hollingsworth hopes round-the-clock Webcasts of his home life with wife Phyllis and his five stepchildren will demystify AIDS and encourage people to learn.
"AIDS has a way of making you real bold," he said in a phone interview from the hospital where he is being treated for pneumonia and three other infections.
Launched on Valentine's Day, http://www.theaidschannel.com carries a host of information on drugs, doctors, support groups, spirituality, and treatments. But for many the real draw is live broadcasts fed by three cameras inside the house.
"I'm very technically challenged but I saw the Internet starting to take off," said Hollingsworth, who lives in the small western Canadian town of Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Three cameras record the family's living room, dining room and office.
The Website is the biggest stage yet for the former drug addict to tell his story and educate others about the disease. He has given "AIDS 101" talks to thousands of students in the western Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and walked hundreds of miles to raise awareness.
Three years ago, realizing that his body would not always be able to meet such heavy physical demands, he spotted the power of the Internet to connect him to a larger audience.
A 1995 HIV-positive diagnosis was the final chapter in his eight-year stretch as a cocaine addict living on the streets.
The former parole officer, who injected cocaine between 40 and 100 times each day, lost his job, gained a criminal record for two drug busts and overdosed 11 times. "Any substance abuse of this scale is suicide on an installment plan," he said.
Sent to a hospital for treatment of a massive overdose, Hollingsworth was also diagnosed with a life-threatening infection from a needle tip he had jammed into his bone. Then doctors discovered he was HIV-positive and on the cusp of developing full-blow AIDS.
"I knew I had to make a decision and that decision was whether to live or die.
It sounds easy but it's not," he said.
Hollingsworth, who recently celebrated his 47th birthday in the hospital, found salvation in telling his story.
Website an Open Door on Family The Website, which often features such monotonous Webcasts as Phyllis cooking at the stove or Richard working at his computer, has drawn heavy traffic.
"Even if it's the good, the bad and the ugly, there's nothing contrived on our Website," Hollingsworth said. "I wanted life and interaction." Since its launch nine months ago, the site has attracted 9 million hits and E-mail from countries ranging from Cuba to Iceland.
Organizers said they recently got a request from China to prepare a documentary on Hollingsworth and his family that China's National Broadcaster plans to air on World AIDS Day.
Hollingsworth believes the site's lure is its message that people with AIDS are not alone and there is cause for hope.
"The Internet is really changing the face of AIDS," he said.
"People can access the latest developments in AIDS information.
I'm surprised how many people in Third World countries have computers, even if they're only 28k modems." At set times, the Internet audience can E-mail or phone Hollingsworth and he hopes to launch interactive features that will allow surfers to select which camera feed they want to watch, for example.
The Website, which cost him and his three partners about $500,000 (Canadian) to launch and operate, is slowly beginning to sign on sponsors.
Still, it represents a massive financial drain for Hollingsworth, whose only reliable source of income is a $1,470 monthly disability pension.
But he is already planning beyond the site's financial survival and has lined up several HIV-positive volunteers who will install the Webcast cameras in their homes after he dies.
Hollingsworth, who plans to die at his home, said that event will be Webcast.
"This Website is my way of issuing a challenge to the medical establishment: Do not let people like myself die from this disease -- put more money into research and vaccines," he said.
"If the medical community lets me down, and I do die on this Website, then I hope my death will serve as a wake-up call to the world. And if this helps to prevent one person from becoming infected with HIV then it's been worth it." (Reuter)