Debra was happily married to Gary until in 1995 her husband was struck down with acute pneumonia, becoming gravely ill.
'I still call him a bastard for doing it, the bastard who put us at risk; not only me, but his children. How could he be so selfish?'
Much to Debra's shock, her husband of ten years was revealed to be HIV positive, and worse still, he admitted that he had been having unprotected sex with other men and using intravenous drugs.
The mother was devastated when she realised that she too had contracted the disease, after having sex with her husband completely unaware he was carrying the virus.
'I still call him a bastard for doing it, the bastard who put us at risk; not only me, but his children. How could he be so selfish?' she says.
But despite her anger at her husband, Debra remained loyal till the end; nursing Gary for 11 months until his death.
'I just got on with it' she says, 'I needed my kids to know that they can never turn around to me and say "why didn't you look after daddy?"'
After Gary's death, Debra found love again with Paul, and together they had a healthy baby boy. None of Debra's four children contracted the disease.
Debra has bravely shared her story in the hope that it will reduce some of the stigma surrounding the disease, especially in her native Australia, where there is only a very small percentage of women who live with it.
She has been living with HIV for 20 years, and has had few medical issues in this time, thanks to her treatment.
'I'm a normal mum, I'm a normal woman and I'm just getting on with my life. HIV is just a small part of my life.'