Summary
CATHY Crawford has devoted much of her life to confounding expectations. The daughter of a Belfast accountant, she chose Southampton University to study law and then abruptly switched to philosophy as a safeguard against a working life of repetitious tedium. Which is certainly not a description easily attached to her chosen teaching jobs, initially in China, then Botswana, then Cambodia - with intervening stints in inner-city comprehensives. She has helped to found an Edinburgh-based charity, and recently begun a master's degree at Moray House. But her latest career decision is certainly the most audacious to date. She has become a model. At 53, posing for both the celebrated Italian photographer Mario Testino, and for British Vogue.
Yet the cheerfully rounded, petite woman who bustles into a city restaurant does not quite encapsulate the angular leanness one associates with photo shoots for the fashion bible. One would more easily cast her as a Walt Disney nanny - all bright, brisk efficiency, with more than a hint of steel behind that cuddlesome exterior. The sort of person who could quieten her rowdy charges just by clearing her throat.See the full content of this document
Extract
My Life with Hiv
The trivialities of high fashion are far from her thoughts. Because Cathy Crawford's modelling career focuses on the one thing she did not choose to have on her CV - her HIV positive status.
Her decision to publicise this so fearlessly is a bold attempt to counteract the stigma still associated with the virus. More than 20 years on from "Patient Zero" - the first case identified in San Francisco when Aids was then descri...See the full content of this document
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