Red Road: A teenager from Bangalore completed the 10K run in 36 minutes and 17 seconds, his best timing so far.

The 18-year-old is HIV-positive and undergoing antiretroviral therapy but that did not stop him from running road races, from Boston to Bangalore.

He was one of the eight teenagers - five boys and three girls - from Bangalore who have been participating in runs around the world to try and eradicate the stigma associated with AIDS. All of them took part in the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K, partnered by The Telegraph.

They are part of a project called Champion in Me, which was conceived in 2009 by Elvis Joseph, a sports management professional who runs Bangalore Schools Sports Foundation. "We use sports to build the immune system of the kids. The idea is to boost their self-esteem and eradicate the stigma associated with the disease," Joseph told Metro.

The foundation took the 18-year-old under its wings from an orphanage. He is from Hoskote, on the outskirts of Bangalore, and was taken to the orphanage by his aunt in 2008.

He clocked 41 minutes in the Boston 10K in July and 39 minutes in the 10K category of the Bangalore Marathon in October. He also ran the Gold Coast 10K in Australia and the Phuket International 10K in 2016.

"I train every day for a couple of hours. Apart from running, I do squats, lunges and other exercises," he said.

An 18-year-old girl, also part of the group, clocked 51:06 in the 10K category on Sunday.

"I liked running in Calcutta. The old monuments caught my eye. The music was exciting," she said after the race.

Before Calcutta, she ran in the TCS World 10K in May and the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in November.

"The recognition the runners are getting will go a long way in bringing them into the mainstream. A school will think twice before admitting them, but on a track, they are getting the recognition for their performance," Joseph said.

"The sporting community has accepted these people before every other segment."

The taboo attached to HIV-positive people is not limited to rural areas, Joseph said. "Even people in the city are wary of interacting with them."