Ryan Lewis of the Grammy-winning duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis is opening up about his mom, Julie Lewis’ 30-year survival of HIV.
Lewis, who has an AIDS ribbon tattooed on his arm, revealed during an interview with CBS News that his mother found out she was HIV positive after she needed a blood transfusion when giving birth to her first child and the donor had been HIV positive without her knowledge.
When she was 32 she was told she would have three to five years to live, but the Lewis family is now celebrating her life 30 years later.
Lewis has since started The 30/30 Project, which aims to “build medical centers worldwide that will stand strong for at least 30 years.”
The Heist singer fully understands he couldn’t be making a difference if he wasn’t famous.
“It's pretty amazing for me that my family could have this story, my mom could go through all of this and it could come to this point that I could use sort of the platform that's been provided to invest my time and energy into something that is just really positive,” he said.