“Our programmes concentrate
primarily on strengthening community-based organisations and developing
community-led education and advocacy initiatives; especially those
working with children and families, and those that address HIV in
the workplace and the role of employers in tackling HIV.
“Africa is our main focus at the moment but we’re also
doing work in Asia and Latin America. For instance we’re starting
a programme next year in China to develop basic skills around advocacy,
fundraising and stigma and discrimination. We work with partners
who do the research and implementation and our job is to identify
where we can have an impact.”
How do you decide who gets money?
“We support organisations not individuals. We concentrate
our limited resources on small-scale replicable programmes. We work
with the best partners for each programme, such as ICASO (The International
Council of Aids Service Organisations) for advocacy campaigns and
the European Forum on HIV/Aids Children and Families.”
What is your own background?
“I grew up on a small farm in Shropshire and was desperate
to get out of the country and move to a city. I studied medicine
in Liverpool and did general practice training. Doing 96-hour weeks
as a junior hospital doctor turned me off the NHS!”
How did you get involved with HIV?
“It is more by accident rather than design. I found I was
HIV positive in 1995 at the age of 30. I went for a test when I
was offered a job in Denmark. I didn’t want any unpleasant
surprises and didn’t expect it to come back positive. But
it did and I was pretty gobsmacked.”
Did you start treatment?
“I started when I was working in New York because the American
doctors were very keen in those days to start early. My viral load
was climbing steadily to 110,000 and my CD4 count was about 500.
I couldn’t think of any other disease where you waited until
you got sick before you started treatment so I went along with it.
“Starting treatment was rough. The defining moment was when
the pills sat on my kitchen worktop for a |
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