NAT (National AIDS Trust)

HIV in the UK is frequently overlooked.  Despite the fact that there are now more people than ever before in the UK living with HIV, it has fallen off the public and political agenda.  

It is becoming an increasingly ‘invisible’ issue and public awareness and understanding of HIV continue to fall.

However, there are now approximately 90,000 people living with HIV in the UK. 

In 2008 there were over 7,000 people diagnosed with HIV in the UK – more than twice the number diagnosed in 1998 – and of these, around three-quarters were either gay men or black African men and women.

But despite the increase in diagnoses in recent years, more than 25 per cent of people infected with HIV in the UK are unaware of their infection because they haven’t been tested and over half the people diagnosed last year were diagnosed late (after the point that they should have started treatment). 

Late diagnosis not only impacts on someone’s own health but, without diagnosis and treatment, they are also more likely to pass HIV onto someone else.

The lack of knowledge and understanding of HIV doesn’t just result in people becoming needlessly infected and diagnosed too late, it also feeds into the continuing stigma around HIV and results in discrimination against people living with HIV. 

Children as young as four have been excluded from UK school just because they are HIV positive, people living with HIV frequently experience prejudice and discrimination at work, from the police and legal professionals, from healthcare workers and even within their families, friends and own communities.   

Why NAT

NAT plays an important and unique role in the UK and we are very different from other organisations supporting people living with HIV.

Unlike many charities who have a remit for the whole of sexual health, NAT focusses solely on HIV. 

We do not provide services directly to people with HIV.  Instead we concentrate on changing the laws, policies, decisions, attitudes and behaviour that impact on people living with HIV across the UK. 

This means that our work benefits the largest possible number of people living with HIV, but it also means that we do not receive funding from the national and local service contracts that so many charities rely on for ongoing income.

Eighty per cent of our income is fundraised – with the largest proportion , 31 per cent, in 2008/09 coming from individuals and community fundraising.  Yet currently we receive very little legacy income.

Why  legacies are so important to NAT

NAT has a track record of achieving change that benefits people infected or affected by HIV and strengthening and upholding the rights of people living with HIV.

But many of our successes take a number of years to achieve.  Legacies are particularly important to NAT because they provide us with the security to embark on long term campaigns to bring about change

Because legacies are generally unrestricted – allowing us to spend the money in the way that we believe best benefits those living with, or at risk of, HIV – it means that we have the resources to respond quickly to policy and legal developments which have implications for people living with HIV in the UK.

Find out more about NAT

 A good starting point is our website which provides information on all our current projects and campaigns and copies of all our recent reports and resources.

 If you would like to talk to someone about our work and the possibility of leaving us a legacy then call us on 020 7814 6725.