LeaSuwanna Griffith
LeaSuwanna is a board member of CAFPH (Centre for All Positive Health), UKCAB Steering Group Member, PrEPster & Treating Me Right Ambassador. She is also a patient representative at Royal College of Physicians, Newham CCG, Sir Ludwig Guttmann Centre Patient Forum and GP Patient rep & HIV CRG sub group. She volunteers as Peer 100 Mentor at Positively UK, Testing & Prevention at Positive East and Maternity Mentor at Maternity Mates, and is part of ACT UP London Women, HIV Voices, Her Story, Changing Perceptions and Women for Social Change programme.
Alongside these feats, LeaSuwanna is studying to be a Midwife. She has been living openly with HIV for 16 years, and will be for many more to come! She is the mother of two wonderful children and has a HIV negative partner. She is #gatecrashing to get our voices heard and her heels through the door!
Tresca Wilson
Tresca is a mum of four, a grandma of two and a WLWHIV who received a late AIDS diagnosis. She is Outreach, Testing and Prevention Volunteer and Receptionist at Positive East, a Peer Mentor for WLWHIV, PrEP Champion, HIV Forum Member at Sir Ludwig Guttman Health Centre, a member of the Patient Participation Group at her GP Practice and a former mentor at drug and alcohol services.
Alongside all of this, Tresca is Maternity Mate at Women’s Health and Family Service - supporting vulnerable pregnant mums to be empowered to have a positive pregnancy and birth experience. Tresca is an ex-drug user, but is 16 years clean. She has been living with HIV for almost four years as is now living ‘her best life’, educating local communities about HIV, PrEP and PEP.
‘My life experiences do not define who I am but they nevertheless have contributed to the confidant and bubbly woman that I am today.’
Ray (NHS Anti-Swindle Team)
Ray is a single-mother, photographer, theatre-maker and activist. She is the co-founder of the NHS Anti-Swindle Team, the founder of The Fallout Club, a Beautiful Trouble trainer and an ACT UP activist. Ray is a firm believer in the power of creativity as a tool for social engagement and political change, and is always on the look-out for new ways to combine social justice with joyous, create dissent.
Sophie Williams (Docs Not Cops)
‘I’m a health worker and I want access to free health services for all, but NHS charging prevents that: it turns away those fearful of the cost or of data scanning about their immigration status, or those confused by what they can access. I’m here as part of Docs Not Cops, an organisation whose roots are in ACT UP London and who campaign to stop the charging and for access to healthcare for all.’
Patrick Braithwaite
Miqhael Kannemeyer (ACT UP London, Radical Faeries)
Miqx has been a queer activist since Gay Liberation Front in 70’s East London, was on London Pride committee in 1980 and that same year also became involved with Radical Faeries in the USA. More recently, Miqx co-founded the Queer Spirit Festival (queerspirit.net) and works in the EuroFaerie Communities networks (eurofaeries.eu).
‘I am most keen on building a valid living sense of community. Having helped to set up housing and worker co-operatives, it is clear to me that individual fulfilment arises strongly from collective empowerment. Learning how to create workable solutions together can best sustain us in the ongoing struggle to overcome the ill effects of austerity and the greed and selfish behaviour of the moneyed classes.’
Mazharul Islam (ACT UP London, Queer Tours of London)
Maz is a tour guide of Queer Tours of London and also an active member of ACT UP London. In November 2016, he moved to London with the support of his present employer ACCA; The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (an amazing LGBT supportive organisation), where he is working as a Business Development Manager. Maz is one of the winners of Attitude Pride Award 2018, having been nominated for this award after organising a protest in London in front of the Bangladesh High Commissioner. The protest asked for justice for Maz’s two LGBT activist friends who were brutally murdered in Bangladesh on April 25th, 2018. He is now an LGBT activist, dedicated to bringing positive change in the Bangladesh LGBT community and to London based Bangladeshi LGBT people.
Silvia Petretti (Positively UK, Catwalk for Power)
Silvia is Postively UK’s CEO, a national peer lead organisation that uses peer lead interventions to enable people living with HIV to have the knowledge, confidence and connections to increase their health and quality of life.
Silvia joined Positively UK in 1999 as volunteer in the Community Development Team, providing treatment information to women attending HIV clinics. Soon, she became a staff member leading on support for women with drug and alcohol issues and providing outreach in Holloway prison. Since then, Silvia has worked in many roles - from setting up PozFem, the first national women’s network, developing new activists through the Taking Part Project and the recent Changing Perceptions campaign. Silvia has been living with HIV for 22 years.