Cass Mann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cass Mann (17 October 1948 – 18 April 2009) was an AIDS activist.
Raised in India he moved to London during his mid-teens. He found the change of both schools and country very disorienting and unsettling. He also fell out with his father after he remarried and lived independently from his mid-teens. Through this experience he developed a tenacity that was evident throughout his life.
Early AIDS activism
He formed Positively Healthy, which was the only charity for HIV positive gay men. He also campaigned against the use of the AIDS drug AZT, sometimes known as Retrovir, due to the toxicity at high doses.[1] He used himself as an example of someone who can live a healthy life after testing positive and argued that the fact that he could live over twenty years without taking any drugs favoured a healthy lifestyle over medicine.
Positively Healthy
Positively Healthy, founded by Cass Mann, was an organisation that provided advocacy for gay men infected with HIV and AIDS. Positively Healthy favoured a holistic approach encouraging a healthy lifestyle, vegetarian diet and nutritional supplements over medicine. Cass Mann also sold supplementary health products as an alternative to scientifically tested treatments provided by HIV health professionals.