A mum-of-three broke down in tears as she told her boyfriend she had the HIV virus only to reel in horror when he replied that he knew he had the disease for years.

Devastated Kara Wilkinson was terrified of telling callous undertaker Alan Mason, 45, she had the virus.

But she was totally unaware her lying boyfriend was so desperate not to lose the woman he supposedly loved that he hid his condition from her and stopped taking his medication.

He only confessed after he passed the virus on to her after 18-months of living together and then called HER selfish for being so upset.

Devastated Kara, 42, who can no longer look at herself in the mirror, said: “He’s ruined my life. I’ll never forgive him for what he’s done."

Speaking after Mason was sentenced to two years and eight months for greivous bodily harm, the distraught single mum revealed she has already suffered four heart attacks, pneumonia, osteoporosis and severe hair loss since being diagnosed after a holiday in Benidorm in 2011.

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She has visibly changed from the photographs of a happy-go-lucky blonde of just a few years ago.

Clearly angry at what he has done to her, she stormed: “He should have been sent to prison for five years.

"What’s to stop him doing it to another woman when he gets out?

“He’s given me a life sentence of misery. Before I had HIV, I was never ill and had loads of energy.

“Now I seem to be permanently ill, my long blonde hair has started to fall out and I look much older than I am.

“I don’t even have a mirror in my house as I can’t stand to look at my reflection. He’s taken my life away.

“I won’t ever forgive him for what he’s done to me. What he’s given me will never go away.

“I don’t think I’ll ever have another relationship - how could I ever trust another man?

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“And, unlike Alan, I’d hate to put anyone else at risk from catching HIV.”

Kara, a former counsellor from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, met Mason in April 2010 at a pub in Kendal.

The single mum had been on her own for two years and the couple swapped numbers and enjoyed a first date playing crazy golf.

Two months later Mason moved from his parents into Kara’s rented maisonette and the couple began doing everything together.

But during a two-week holiday in Benidorm, just 18 months after they met, Kara started to feel unwell and it was a remark from a doctor back in the UK in October 2011 that set alarm bells ringing.

She went on: “At the beginning of the second week on holiday, I woke up feeling sick, had diarrhoea and felt weak and dizzy when I stood up.

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“When I got back home I saw the doctor and he said I might be HIV positive.

“It didn’t make any sense. I told her that I was in a long term relationship but agreed anyway to have a blood test taken just in case.

“When I got home, I told Alan what the doctor had said.

"He just shrugged, but the next day, he told me he had something important to say.

“Then he dropped the bombshell that he thought I was HIV positive, as he’d had the same symptoms for years before.

“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die.’

“All he could tell me was he’d caught it after a one night stand with a girl and that he hadn’t told me because he didn’t want to lose me.

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“He’d even stopped taking his medication when we moved in together so that I wouldn’t get suspicious.

“He told me that it wouldn’t make any difference to my life, as long as I took the medication.

“Eventually after my questions, he snapped and accused me of being selfish for talking about HIV so much.

"I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I kicked him out.”

Since her diagnosis, 5ft tall Kara has struggled to keep her weight up, dropping to 5st 7lb at one point, as well as suffering pneumonia and several heart attacks which has left her having to have two shunts fitted to open up the arteries her heart.

She now has to take a large handful of tablets every day to keep the AIDs infection at bay and prevent another heart attack.

On September 1, 2014, Mason a divorced father of two children appeared in Carlisle Crown Court where he admitted causing Miss Wilkinson grievous bodily harm by giving her HIV.

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The court heard a victim impact statement from Kara which said: “He has destroyed my life and the fact of what he did to me will live with me for the rest of my life.”

It emerged Mason had been diagnosed as having HIV in 2008.

He had given Kara the identical strain of the disease.

Passing sentence at Carlisle Crown Court, Judge Paul Batty QC told him: “I am of the view that you deliberately targeted this hapless, vulnerable victim.”

After the hearing, Det Con Damian West of Cumbria Police said: “This is a unique case and the sentencing imposed highlights the disregard Mason had for his actions.

"Even though the victim has to live with this virus, modern medication means there should be no impact on life expectancy - however, the virus has a significant day to day impact on those who have to live with it.”