All the news that’s fit to print from the HIV sector
Latest news from Brighton is that the management team from the Hove-based
Martlets Hospice are being brought in by the Trustees
of the Sussex Beacon. “We have extended this invitation to
the Martlets team in order that we can sustain our services over the next
twelve months and develop a strategic plan for the long-term provision of
HIV services,” said chair of Sussex Beacon Trustees Michael
Le Garst.
Meanwhile, hats off to the Global Strong Trust for the celebrity
online auction for the Sussex Beacon and for their wonderful
fundraising for our very own Midweek support group for gay
men with HIV at UKC. Keep up the good work guys!
www.theglobalstrongtrust.com
Congratulations to Positively Women who celebrate their 20th
anniversary this month with a special edition of their quarterly newsletter
featuring stories of 24 women diagnosed over the last 20 years.
Sunday 10 June is a big day for your diaries as it is the 17th Crusaid
Walk for Life. To support our own A-Team UKC, email
Carl Mills on cmills@ukcoalition.org or call 020 7485 2466. You can also register
or sponsor online at www.walkforlife.co.uk
Project co-ordinators Limelight Projects tell us they are
still looking for volunteers to act as stewards to help walkers on the big
day. If interested email walkforlife@limelightprojects.com
Don’t forget about the After Walk Party from 5-8pm
at London nightclub Heaven. It will be a great end to a great
day and your walk wristband will gain you free entry to the club.
Crusaid celebrated their 20th Anniversary by holding a reception
in Cape Town on 10 April where the Hannan Crusaid Clinic
in Gugulethu township now supports over 3,000 people on antiretroviral therapy.
Sad news from Manchester is the closing down of Operation Fundraiser
which has raised over half a million pounds in the last four years for lesbian,
gay and HIV charities in the funky city, including £102,000 for free
condoms and lube and another £102,000 for the HIV Welfare Fund.
Manchester Pride now takes over as main local fundraiser and we wish
them every success.
Up in Inverness, we hear all is not so rosy for the Terrence Higgins
Trust (THT) takeover of Reach Out Highland. The
local press is full of accusations that the Trust has given sex services the
snip, with staff leaving and counselling services being cut. But THT have
hit back and said they are actually providing more counselling as well as
planning new services from June.
UKC’s Nottingham office is up and running to provide
services for HIV positive people in the city and environs with the lovely
Nicola Perkins keeping a steady hand on the helm. For information
call 0115 985 7211 or email nperkins@ukcoalition.org
What is happening at sexual health clinics across the capital? Long queues
and cutbacks?
The Graham Hayton Unit at the Royal London Hospital
is closing this May and merging with Andrews Outpatients at BARTs.
And worried staff at St George’s Hospital
in Tooting tell us of cuts in sexual health advisor posts at their GUM Courtyard
Clinic.
Hatches, matches and dispatches…
Sad news this month is the death of Joanna Buchan, BBC World
Service and Radio 4 Today journalist, who did so much in the 1990s to raise
awareness of HIV.
Congratulations this month go to our favourite top HIV doc Dr Mark Nelson
who gets married with Dr Martin Fisher acting as best man.
UKC staff moving on this month are ETUDD (Employers, Trade
Unions, Diversity & Development) manager Christina Earl
who leaves to work for Surrey County Council in Guildford.
Haydn Ford leaves after a year as UKC treatments advisor
but will continue to provide Dramatherapy at UKC in Kentish Town.
Finally, a word of thanks to Watford FC manager Aidy Boothroyd.
You may have ended up bottom of the Premier League but you were the champions
as far as we are concerned for all your hard work to raise HIV awareness among
the Football Managers Association (FMA).
Send your HIV sector news to: news@positivenation.co.uk
Clowns
help with NHS hygiene hints
One in twelve patients in NHS hospitals in England is being treated for an
infection they did not have when they were admitted.
Billions of potentially deadly bacteria are passed on each day in our hospitals
because people are too complacent or lazy to wash their hands often enough.
The NHS advises health staff to decontaminate their hands between every patient
contact and before every medical procedure as well as before handling food,
medication or any patient. Patients and even visitors are also advised to
wash their hands before and after any contact with others.
Patients and staff at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital held their 7th annual
Hand Hygiene Awareness Week last month. Managed by the infection control team,
its purpose is to raise awareness of infection control issues including hand
hygiene.
Pictured, left to right, are: Barry the Bug, Captain Custard, Shona Perkins,
Infection Control Nurse, Roz Wallis, consultant infection control nurse, and
‘Bugs’ bunny.
Green Legged Chicken destroys iron curtain
Twenty staff, volunteers and board members from a number of UK Ensuring Positive
Futures (EPF) partners visited Poland last month as part of the Equal funded
Green Legged Chicken partnership.
Seventy five people from five European EPF partners came together to share
best practice about helping and empowering HIV positive people back into work.
After attending a two-day UNDP Conference in Warsaw the group also visited
a rehabilitation centre in Wanzin in north-west Poland, where they saw the
remarkable Ecoszansa project which supports just over 60 people living with
HIV.
• www.e-pf.org.uk
Bresky gets hitched
Great friend to all in the HIV sector and policy adviser to the All
Party Parliamentary Group on Aids Aviva Bresky married barrister Edward Elliott
on the Isle of Wight on 24 March. After honeymooning in Paris and Florence
the couple returned to their love nest in Battersea. Good luck and best wishes
to Aviva and Edward from us all!
• www.appg-aids.org.uk
