She was a healthy track and basketball athlete but began showing symptoms of an unknown illness that became critical enough to put her in an intensive-care unit.
Never had someone mentioned the possibility of me, Marvelyn Brown, contracting HIV from unprotected sex.
She was inducted into The Heroes In The Struggle Photo Exhibit by The Magic Johnson Foundation and The Black AIDS Institute in 2010 and named a Modern Day Black History month hero by BET and was honored by the New Jersey NETS in 2011.
[11] Brown was named one of the Top 25 Heroes of the past twenty-five years of the AIDS epidemic, alongside Alicia Keys, Magic Johnson and Phill Wilson.
"[13] Two days earlier, she elaborated on why she had written The naked Truth, adding, "I wrote The Naked Truth because I wanted people to get the full story and not a sound bite or the one-hour preping[3] speaking engagement.
She educated attendees on the dangers of unsafe sex and HIV, for which she was required to accommodate to a new lifestyle.
[15] She shared that her medications often cause her to experience side effects, and recalled having to take forty-two pills in one day.
She openly stated she had previously wished to die, but after surviving a car accident is glad to have been given a "second chance", and says she has found God, to whom she gives thanks every day for still being alive today.