Who we are

Originally from Kenya, Angelina has over 25 years’ experience of working in the HIV sector on different initiatives. This includes providing one-to-one support to people living with HIV, treatment advocacy, and managing service delivery, to facilitating, promoting and advocating for the involvement of women living with HIV in local and national strategy and policy. Living with HIV for more than a quarter of a decade, she is a founder member of the 4M Network of Mentor Mothers living with HIV. Angelina sits on various national and international advisory boards and has also co-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals and UNAIDS reports.

Charity Nyirenda is one of the UK’s leading HIV awareness campaigners, using her own experience of living with HIV for 18 years to promote better understanding of HIV. She has volunteered and worked alongside many organisations in the HIV sector including Positively UK, Embrace UK, NAZ Project, National AIDS Trust and Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). She has been the face of THT's ‘Can’t Pass It On’ campaign for several years, educating people that those on successful treatment can’t pass HIV on to their sexual partners. In 2019, Charity won the Islington Volunteer of the Year award for her support work for women living with HIV and her courage for being the face of several stigma campaigns. In 2021 she was nominated to receive a Points of Light award. She devotes her time to being a dedicated activist for migrant women living with HIV and continues to fight against stigma.

Eli is a young transgender man living with HIV. He works to support, advocate, and raise awareness for other LGBTQ+ and young people living with HIV. Since 2021, Eli has been a Youth Project Coordinator for Positively UK.

Emily lives in Bristol with her son and works at a local mental health charity. Since her HIV diagnosis in 2016, she's been an active member of the local HIV community in Bristol. Emily has been a peer mentor and facilitator, campaigner and positive speaker, and delivers HIV stigma and awareness training to NHS staff. Emily is a keen activist, having been involved in various national projects about HIV. Having a passion for public speaking and being open about her HIV status, she aims to educate and empower. 

Emma Cole was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and has chosen to speak out about living with HIV ever since. She began talking publicly as a volunteer for Positive Youth/Body Positive in 1992 before launching her own 'Positive Voice' talk for schools and businesses in 2002. Since her diagnosis, Emma has spoken at over 250 schools to an estimated 350,000 young people. Emma has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and Sky as well as radio and print media. Twitter: @emmacolehiv / Instagram: @emmacolehiv  

Emma is a mental health nurse and HIV advocate. She lives just outside Glasgow with her partner Paul, her son Finlay and newborn daughter Fiadh. Instagram: @positivemumoftwo

Enitan is a migrant from Nigeria, model and activist. He loves helping others and giving back to society. Enitan enjoys going to the cinema, loves dancehall, pop, and contemporary African music, and appreciates the arts.

Born in Turkey, Harun moved to the UK in 2015 to escape anti-LGBT+ hostility and discrimination. When he was diagnosed with HIV in 2016, he chose to become an ambassador for good sexual and mental health, volunteering for several London-based charities. In 2020, he decided to devote himself fully to HIV support work. He currently works at Positively UK, and is also an NHS Patient and Public Voice Partner and a member of the UK-CAB Steering Committee. In June 2022, Harun contracted monkeypox and was hospitalised for 10 days; he had one of the most severe cases in the UK. He was one of the few people who shared his experience publicly to raise awareness of the condition and to challenge the stigma around it. His story has been shared with the world by WHO and the UN. Harun is committed to sharing his life experiences publicly to tackle stigma and raise awareness of HIV, monkeypox and mental health, as well as the stigma he faced as a gay man in Turkey. He also works as a peer mentor to support others living with HIV and shares sexual health information both in Turkish and English through his social media. Twitter: @HarunTulunay Instagram: haruntulunay

Reverend Jide Macaulay is the Founder and CEO of House Of Rainbow CIC. He is an openly gay British-Nigerian, born in London. Jide has been a Christian minister since 1998, is an Anglican priest, inspirational speaker, author, poet, pastor and preacher. Jide is also an HIV-positive activist, holds a degree in law, master's degree in theology and post-graduate certificate in pastoral theology. Jide is a patron of ReportOUT, Vice Chair at One Voice Network, Chair of INERELA Europe, and volunteer chaplain at Mildmay Hospital.

Jo was diagnosed with HIV in 2008. Bringing skills gained in 30+ years in journalism, public relations and crisis management to the HIV sector, she joined the British HIV Association (BHIVA) as Communications Officer in 2017. Her insights and perspectives as an HIV-positive person helped to extend the depth and breadth of medical and mainstream reporting and, during COVID, were central to translating treatment guidance into plain English. A committed activist, she has supported the UK-CAB Steering Group for a decade, was a BHIVA Trustee from 2019 to 2023, volunteers for the National AIDS Trust and is a Positive Voices speaker for Terrence Higgins Trust (THT).

José is a researcher, facilitator and project manager working in HIV and mental health in London. His practice centres on peer support, lived experience and community development. Alongside public bodies and community organisations, José has developed and implemented projects with migrants, LGBT and indigenous communities in the UK, Brazil and Colombia. José has degrees in communication studies and innovation management. José is a member of NAM aidsmap's Emerging Voices programme. Read his latest articles and pages. Twitter: @aliasCHEPE

Kieran is 27 and lives in Manchester. He has been living with HIV for the last five years. After his diagnosis he studied a master's degree in medical virology, which enabled him to learn more about HIV in order to support his volunteering position at George House Trust as a Positive Speaker. In this role, he goes into communities, schools and businesses to educate others about HIV and share his story. Last year Kieran became engaged to his partner Jack, who is HIV negative, at Disney World. As a couple, they prove the incredible message of U=U – showing that HIV holds no one back!

When Tini/Martin received an AIDS diagnosis in 2007, his life changed...for the better. With medication, the condition was beaten swiftly, and his HIV becoming manageable and – most importantly – completely uninfectious. He became one of 38 million people living with HIV, a community he cherishes and loves. As a writer, he found his authentic voice and as an activist, he knew he had the experience to normalise HIV. He wanted control over how people perceived him, so he labelled himself 'HIV neutral'. HIV left its autograph in his bloodstream and those three letters have given him a new life. He hopes others living, or newly diagnosed, with HIV are given some hope from his journey, because hope is also viral.

Maurice has worked as a music and drama teacher and in professional theatre, mainly in stage management, as well as a supporting artist in numerous television programmes. Maurice is also an HIV and LGBT activist. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 and developed AIDS in 1994 when he was given six months to live. Refusing to give up, he returned to education as a means of fighting his AIDS-defining illness of HIV-associated dementia. Now in his 80s, he has two honours degrees, speaks four European languages and is resident organist at Holy Trinity Church Hartshill. Maurice is Chair of the North Midlands LGBT Older People’s Group and a trustee of the North Staffs & District Organ Society.

Nathan is 26 years old and lives in Manchester. He put his name forward for the photoshoot as he knew first hand the impact that stigma around HIV can have on someone, to the point where he had mostly shied away from owning his status. The people that need to know his status, know. But the people that don’t, haven’t a clue. This isn't because Nathan is ashamed of having HIV, he is ashamed of what people may think. This project was insanely empowering and whilst Nathan is aware that people on medication can live a normal life (incredible stuff) it also allowed him to let go of worrying about what people might think of him. HIV isn’t the problem, the stigma around it is and if Nathan can do anything to change the minds of people around that, he will. Nathan says this is like coming out all over again!

Paul has been an activist in HIV since the early 1990s. He has represented the community on many boards and committees with the British HIV Association and NHS England. He is an advisory board member of several research projects related to HIV and also to LGBT experiences of illness and bereavement. He is a long-standing member of the UK Community Advisory Board and an active member of the European AIDS Treatment Group. Paul is a member of NAM's Emerging Voices programme. Read his latest articles.

Paul spent a number of years working in the health and social care field in London, including as Strategic Planning Officer for Older People’s Services in Southwark and as CEO of Age Concern Harrow (now Age UK). In 2000, he changed direction and pursued a lifelong ambition to be an artist, and graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 2004. He was diagnosed with HIV the following year. Paul is now both an established artist and author. He has won art competitions, held a number of solo exhibitions, sold his paintings to Lenny Henry and the late Cilla Black, and participated in group exhibitions for Opening Doors (a charity providing services for those over 50 in the LGBTQ+ community). Paul has also published two books on the history of the furniture manufacturer Lebus. In recent years he has been active in local charities that work with, and for, those in treatment and recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.

Prashant is currently working as business analyst. He moved to the UK from India to pursue a master's in data science. Prashant was diagnosed with HIV in 2020 in India during the COVID pandemic. He supports people who have been recently diagnosed with HIV or who have a fear of HIV. He says he has gained immense self awareness working with this community. Instagram: prashant__999.

Rob is a psychotherapist, coach, and clinical supervisor providing discounted therapy to people living with HIV. He previously ran an HIV peer mentoring service in Brighton and Sussex. Rob has delivered workshops at Positively UK's national HIV conferences and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Fast-Track Cities forum in Brighton & Hove. Passionate about HIV and mental health, he is currently a member of the panel on the redevelopment of NHS mental health provision in Brighton & Hove and an advisor on an NHS talking therapies panel tasked with delivering HIV training to NHS mental health practitioners supporting people living with HIV.

Sara is 57 and lives in west London. When she was diagnosed with HIV in hospital in 2015 after a period of ill health, it was a bolt out of the blue. Life had been wonderful until then: she loved her work in IT which took her around the world, spending time with her cats and playing bridge. Sara struggled after her diagnosis, feeling depressed, alone and ill with her health conditions, and it took her a couple of years to be OK with being HIV positive. Now, HIV is the easiest of her conditions to manage and the least of her health worries. The hardest thing to live with is the stigma and she worries about having a relationship with someone. Even though she can’t pass the virus on, saying that she has HIV is really scary. She says that nobody would expect someone like her to be HIV positive. "People like me don’t generally speak out. But I don’t want to hide any more or feel ashamed."

Stephen is an actor, writer and YouTuber who fell into being an activist by accident after writing and starring in his one man show Shadowed Dreamer, which ran in New York for 9 months, closing off Broadway in 2010. Since then, he's started his YouTube channel Hart Talks, which follows him as a Positive Voices speaker for the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), the London Ambassador for Stamp Out Spiking, a presenter on the radio show The HIV Hour on Radio Reverb, singing with the Joyful Noise Choir and The West End Musical Choir, and his love of theatre and his cats Gracie and Gus. YouTube: Hart Talks

Born in Manchester to Caribbean parents, Tresca is a mother to four children and also a grandmother. She was diagnosed with late-stage HIV in August 2015. Tresca works across a wide range of diverse community spaces, which includes testing people for HIV and other STIs, and in health intervention outreach where she delivers condoms and information resources to LGBT+ venues in Hackney and the surrounding areas. She has a passion for engaging with and empowering different communities, helping to fight HIV stigma and end HIV transmissions by 2030. Tresca is also a mentor mother with the 4M Network, peer mentor and activist.

Victoria is a British/Spanish Argentinian Latin American trans woman with a passion for supporting the transgender community. She has been living with HIV since 2007. Victoria has over 25 years of experience as an events organiser and performer in the arts and culture sector. She empowers and amplifies trans individuals and their representation. Victoria's LGBTQ+ specific work includes being a mentor and assessor for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people at CliniQ in London since November 2021, where she was appointed Director in April 2023. Victoria has also volunteered, provided youth support and worked as a consultant. In her free time, Victoria enjoys coaching, promoting transgender representation, cinema, music and the arts.