This year for World AIDS day, teams from across the city will be working together to raise awareness. Information stands will be held throughout the day at Heartlands Hospital in the main corridor, at Good Hope in the Treatment Centre and at the QE in the main Atrium. Visitors to the stands will be offered a red ribbon, along with  information and advice from the Umbrella Sexual health Team and the Saving Lives HIV Charity.

Increased access to HIV testing will also be available at Heartlands, with directions given to the Umbrella Clinic at Hawthorn House, along with information and advice on discreet home testing options and the support services available through Umbrella across the city.

The teams will also be taking the big red bus out across the town to support outreach work within the local communities and  stopping at each of the hospitals to visit the teams and offer advice to patients, visitors and staff. The bus will then make its way to the city centre where the teams will come back together to attend the candle lit vigil at 7pm in Birmingham Cathedral Square.

The vigil, led this year by HIV Charity, Positive West Midlands,  is free to attend and open to all wishing to remember those who have died with an HIV related condition and to celebrate and honour the lives of those who are still living with the virus and acknowledge the stigma which is still attached to this issue.

To find out more about World AIDS Day and the events going on across the country, visit: https://www.worldaidsday.org/events. For more information about HIV testing and the services available, visit: www.umbrellaheath.co.uk