Apeke's story has all the improbable drama of a soap opera: sex, drugs, teenage pregnancy, secrets and blackmail. Behind the headlines, though, is a more familiar story: the daughter of an African immigrant caught between her strict upbringing and a desire for freedom.
She got in with the wrong crowd, smoked, drank alcohol and lost her virginity at 14. She smoked marijuana, moving on to ecstasy, cocaine and then crack, which she smoked without realising what it was. "Crack felt different," Apeke says. "I noticed how badly I wanted more, even after one time." She started spending longer periods away from home, sleeping around, stealing and living with dealers who supplied her with crack. The drug quickly took its toll, and she became emaciated, her body riddled with sores. "I didn't eat, drink or sleep. When I looked in the mirror, I didn't recognise myself." She was 16. Around this time, Apeke found out she was pregnant. Doctors told her she would be better off having an abortion, but she saw it as a chance to straighten herself out: "I had one motivation, to bring a healthy baby into the world."A few weeks later, back in the hospital for a routine check-up, she found out she was HIV positive. "I was terrified. The doctors actually told me I had Aids and had about eight years to live." This was the late 90s when HIV was widely misunderstood and still seen as a death sentence. "They were old-fashioned and angry with me.A more sympathetic doctor explained she had HIV, not Aids; that it was highly unlikely her unborn child would contract the virus; and that if she stayed in good health, she would live a long life and, more significantly, there was only a small chance she could pass the virus on.
