The Longest Journey is the Journey Within 2015

Archive ID: 2015_den-langsta-resan-ar-resan-inat_eng-sub

This is the story about Steve Sjöquist - writer, HIV activist and deacon at Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset in Stockholm. Steve was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and he was one of the first Swedish AIDS patients to get the new antiretroviral therapy in 1996. It saved his life. 

Background material

"Steve became very ill in 1996 and stayed the whole year at the AIDS ward at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm. His doctor at that time, Per Hedman, had heard that MSD had got some of the first doses of a new antiretroviral medication which they stored in the refrigerator at the headquarter oustide of Stockholm. It had not yet been put in use since MSD waited for an approval from the Swedish drug administration agency. So one day the medical director at MSD, Gunilla Eneroth, went up to Steve in the hospital with the medication stored in a plastic bag. This saved Steves life, because he was only a few days from dying. When Steve recovered he started to write books. He has written four books focusing on HIV/AIDS, stigma, exclusion and inclusion. In 2012 he became ordained as a Deacon in the Swedish Church, and today he works at the Karolinska University Hospital as a fully employed Deacon. Steve is a person who makes me smile and who gives me positive energy. It has been a pleasure to produce the movie about Steve and we have worked together on this film for five years."- Staffan Hildebrand