At 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 13, Tom Donohue received a phone call from his doctor that would change his life.

The matter in question was results from a recent blood test.

"I had called about mid-week, and I knew that all my tests had come back fine, except I was waiting on HIV results," he said.

Donohue said he was able to conclude immediately why the doctor was calling, and he asked to meet with him that evening.

"I became hysterical to the point of almost hyperventilating. I think I was in awe. I didn't know what to think or say," he said.

But just months after receiving the unexpected news that he was infected with the HIV virus, Donohue has decided to make his experience public by sharing it with audiences across the country.

"I want to be able to reach out to people and tell them HIV is in their back yards," Donohue said.

Donohue said that now, his goal is to prevent others from making the same mistakes he did.

"It's an embarrassment ... saying I was unsafe and I was promiscuous," he said, "but if I'm open and honest, people respect that."

The 24-year-old former Penn State student said he is "about 90 percent certain" he contracted the virus in State College. "I know of other people that are HIV-positive in State College," he said.

He first spoke publicly about his situation on campus at World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, 2003. The reaction he received there motivated him to bring his story to more people.

Before going to the doctor to confirm the results, Donohue had to discuss his suspicions with his partner, whom he said supported him.

"I was forced to put myself in the position to tell the first person in my life I was HIV-positive," he said.

Telling his parents presented a greater challenge.

"My parents were getting a divorce. My father was being mobilized and shipped to Iraq," Donohue explained. Because of the divorce, he said, it was difficult to convince his parents to meet together as a family.

Donohue said his father, a 35-year U.S. Army sergeant, had not been supportive of his being gay, but "when I told him that I was HIV-positive, he showed a very small indication that he was going to be supportive. To some people, that might not be much of anything, but for me, that was a lot."

Late last month, Donohue decided to make his story public by founding Who's Positive, a program designed to help live audiences share his story.

Since his diagnosis, Donohue has taken several people to get tested for HIV. His presentation stresses getting tested for the virus.

Donohue said while he now tries to avoid catching a cold, his daily life has not changed much.

"That's basically all the difference that has changed in my life ... I get blood work a little more often," he said.

Allison Subasic, director of Penn State's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (LGBTA) Student Resource Center, said she helped Donohue as he dealt with understanding HIV and tried to learn as much about the virus as he could.

"The more he was educated, the more comfortable he felt with his own health," she said.

Because Donohue was active in the LGBTA community prior to finding out he was HIV-positive, Subasic said his decision to take his story public was not surprising.

"He still seems like the same Tom," she said.

Donohue has been contacted by the University of Wisconsin, and he said he wants to bring his program to as many audiences as possible.

During his presentations, each audience member is given a card with a hypothetical HIV test result on it. A facilitator begins the presentation by asking members to look at their cards.

"I stand up, and I say, 'My name is Tom Donohue, and I'm HIV-positive,' " he said.

He said he thinks his youth helps to bring a face to HIV.

"Statistics are strong, but when you can put a face to it, it's so much stronger. The impact is so much greater," he said.