Category Archives: Press / Media
‘It Starts With Me’ – a new HIV campaign for England
As many of you who have been following my writings for some time now will know, I have frequently lambasted the UK Government, Department of Health and Health Protection Agency for failing to take any decisive action to curb the rising rate of HIV infections in the UK.
In recent years there’ve been numerous repetitive campaigns about cancer, stroke, mental health, alcohol, drugs, fruit & veg, exercise – even barbequed food, but nothing about HIV since the late 1980s. Well that changes this month.
24th April 2013 marks the launch of ‘It Starts With Me‘, a campaign created by The Terrence Higgins Trust and funded by HIV Prevention England (HPE), via the Department of Health, a campaign that will run (at least initially) for two years – until April 2015.
‘It Starts With Me’ is a campaign that will be delivered online, via the press, via posters/condom packs in venues and via local outreach teams. HPE will funding national and regional organisations to promote the campaign up and down England.
The campaign focuses on:
- Testing for HIV at least once every twelve months, and more frequently if they have taken a risk, or show symptoms of seroconversion illness.
- Taking the medication they need to stay fit and well, if they have been diagnosed with HIV.
- Protecting themselves during sex by using condoms and finding other ways to avoid risk.
- Participating in community action by finding a way to support the campaign and spread the word to their friends and contacts.
Make sure to check out www.startswithme.org.uk, the website for the campaign, and watch the short introductory video, which includes many interesting facts like 1 in 4 people in the UK with HIV don’t know that they have the virus, and that treatment is easier than ever and dramatically reduces the risk of you passing the virus onto anyone else.
You can find out more at www.startswithme.org.uk and a the campaign’s facebook and twitter pages.
It Starts With Me.
Tom
UKPositiveLad
Last week’s Gaydio chat – now available to listen to online!
Ahoy-hoy,
Last week I was in Manchester from Thursday to Sunday. I attended a great event run by LGF, and got a chance to visit Chris & Emma in the Gaydio Studio!
It made a nice change from chatting with them on the phone! I spoke about my big disclosure, the ‘functional cure’ story concerning 14 patients in France, my appearance on BBC World News and the first birthday of rucomingout.com
As before you can download and listen to the show in MP3 by clicking HERE 
If you want me to appear on your show please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
Tom
UKPositiveLad
April 2013 Issue of ATTITUDE Magazine Out NOW
Afternoon all,
How’re we all doing? What’s that? Speak up I can’t hear you!
Just a little blog post to let you know that the April 2013 issue of ATTITUDE Magazine is out now in digital format, available on iPad, iPhone, Android and pretty much any other device going – you can get your copy here. For those of you who like something to hold in your hand it’ll be on new-stands from this Wednesday 6th March.
This issue our cover star is the stunning James Franco talking about cruising bars, leather and the Wizard of Oz. Zac Efron’s new film ‘The Paperboy’, lots of men in swimwear and my coming out piece. Yes that’s right – this month is the first month you’ll see my face in ATTITUDE Magazine, well all of it anyway. I talk about my journey so far, the support I’ve received and the highs and lows of my short time so far living with HIV.
Check it out!
Tom
UKPositiveLad
Tuesday morning on Gaydio talking HIV – listen again!
Afternoon,
Tuesday morning I was on Gaydio again, doing my HIV guest spot.
If you missed it I was speaking live on-air to Chris and Emma about the Health Protection Agency (HPA)’s HIV in the UK 2012 report, about disclosing my HIV status and my upcoming reveal.
As before you can download and listen to the show in MP3 by clicking HERE
If you want me to appear on your show please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Student Pride 2013
It’s been a little while since I was a student, six years ago to be precise (oh I feel old), but I was honoured to be invited down to this year’s Student Pride 2013.
For a lot of attendees Student Pride will be the first ‘Pride’ event that they ever go to, so it’s important that the organisers get the weekend right, and that they have done.
There are multiple events, with a little something for everyone. For those that are old enough there are clubbing nights, with special performances from the likes of X-Factor’s Lucy Spraggan, Class A and Capital FM’s James Barr. During the day there are job fairs, theatre productions, live music and debates.
There will also be sexual health advice and FREE rapid HIV testing available courtesy the good people from ’56 Dean Street’. Make sure to stop by and check your status, it only takes a few minutes and could save your life and the lives of anyone you play with.
Student Pride 2013 runs from 1st – 3rd March 2013 in Brighton on the South Coast of England. If you’re a student and 16 years ago or more you can GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!
See you there!
Sam
UKPositiveLad
Birmingham gets a LGBT Health & Wellbeing Centre
Tuesday 29th January 2013 heralds a new era for the LGBT community in Birmingham, and the Midlands in general with the opening of the Birmingham LGBT Health & Wellbeing Centre.
The Big Lottery Fund and Birmingham City Council have generously donated £479,263 and £250,000 respectively to get this ambitious project off the ground.
None of this would be possible without the hard work and persistence of Steph Keeble (Director) and David Viney (Health & Wellbeing Manager) who’ve worked tirelessly over the last year and a half to make this project a reality.
The centre will offer a range of services from it’s in-house clinic including a Sexual Health service, provided by Healthy Gay Life and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust – along side smoking cessation and alcohol misuse counselling.
Depression, self harm and suicide continues to damage the LGBT community and especially LGBT youth. This problem is especially profound in Birmingham where 48% of LGBT people interviewed claim to have thought about suicide, and 20% claim to have attempted it.
There will be a Cafe/Bar area run by MatchBox – who will provide a range of healthy light meals and drinks, this space will be available in the evening for events in the LGBT community, along with a number of training and meeting rooms – which will also be able to be hired out by local businesses.
To find out more about the Birmingham LGBT Health & Wellbeing Centre either pop along to (38/40 Holloway Circus Birmingham. B1 1EQ) or visit their website: http://www.blgbt.org/
A morning chat with Gaydio about all things UKPositiveLad (listen here)
Morning all,
This morning my alarm went off at 7:00am, time to get up and make myself a coffee. I was on the radio in 30 minutes.
If you missed it I was speaking live on-air to Chris and Emma from Gaydio about all things UKPositiveLad and HIV.
With their permission I’ve included an MP3 of the recording for you to download and listen to here! We touch on blogging, twitter, celebrities, HIV support and gay mugs. Check it out!
If you want me to appear on your show please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact page on this site.
Sam
UKPositiveLad
I talk HIV on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Hello all,
Welcome to Monday morning! I hope you’re enjoy a cup of coffee, I’m on my third at this point.
What a crazy weekend that was, with gallery openings, World AIDS Day events, street collecting for the Terrence Higgins Trust in the freezing cold, speaking engagements and being interviewed on live radio to top it all off.
I got a call on Saturday afternoon from the producers of the ‘Double Take’ show on BBC Radio 5 Live, asking if I’d be willing to come on air for a few minutes to talk about my experience with HIV, and where I think we’re failing in light of the recent figures realised showing that in 2011 more gay men were diagnosed HIV+ than ever before.
I was in Milton Keynes on Saturday night/Sunday morning and had no way to get to a BBC studio, so had to conduct the interview from a spare room at my friend’s house over Skype. It was pretty brief but I think got part of my message across. HIV is manageable, but not curable and we can’t continue to be complacent. We need a widespread and mainstream ad-campaign that reaches everyone in the UK regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, wealth or age.
You can listen to the interview on BBC iPlayer for a week here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p3mwy
My interview starts from time: 23 minutes and 45 seconds in.
Have a great week everyone!
Sam
UKPositiveLad