A CHARITY which supports people in Oxfordshire who are HIV positive could have to shut its only base in the county if council cuts go through.

Mark Kay, who was diagnosed 16 years ago after he had a blood transfusion in Uganda following an accident, described the Terrence Higgins Trust as a “lifeline to many people”.

He uses the centre the charity, which has had a base in Oxford since 1999, runs in Rectory Road.

Mr Kay said: “The counselling and help has been a safety net for me and I think they’re unsung heroes.

“Over the last 15 years they have treated me as a friend – when I go to the Oxford office it is absolutely astonishing.”

Oxfordshire County Council is proposing to cut its £50,000 funding – a third of the total budget needed to run the Oxford centre.

Manager Mara Ranieri Davey said there would be no service for people living with HIV who need the support.

She said: “We are supporting a marginalised community, a stigmatised group of people and they will be marginalised further without the charity.

“It is not like the children’s centres where you have people marching in the street about it. People will not be waving banners and protesting about these cuts.

“There is going to be nothing for them in terms of the outreach work we do.

“There will be no work in terms of prevention, in terms of spreading the message among the groups that are most affected.”

According to Public Health England there are 457 people in Oxfordshire aged between 15 to 59 getting help with 231 of those living in Oxford.

From April to September this year the charity, which employs five people in Rectory Road, has helped more than 90 Oxford residents.

It has launched a petition calling on the public to lobby the council against the cuts.

The county council confirmed that no final decision has been made ahead of the budget consultation. Monday is the deadline for comments to the authority on cuts to save more than £50m.

On Wednesday, as part of HIV Awareness Week, members of the Oxford HIV and Aids awareness campaign spent the day talking to people by the Radcliffe Camera about the stigma surrounding the virus.

About 500 red ribbons were tied to the fence by the library by visitors who stopped to chat, as a symbol of the virus. Organiser Tom Gardiner said: “We had people from all backgrounds coming by and asking questions.”

For more information on the petition, see change.org/p/oxfordshire-county-council-oxfordshire-county-council-s-cuts-to-hiv-prevention-and-support-services