I am a volunteer health worker in rural Uganda, and every week I have to watch my HIV-positive patients die.

They are suffering because they have lost access to life-saving medication due to recent unprecedented cuts to global HIV/AIDS programmes.

There is no time for countries to find alternative resources. There are no safety nets here.

I am deeply worried Keir Starmer has decided to cut international aid funding. Already the UK government has announced it will reduce its contribution to the Global Fund by £150m. More decisions on funding to support vital work on HIV care around the world are still to come. 

Cuts to funding put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. Infections will soar. Mothers will lose the ability to prevent transmission to their unborn babies. And drug-resistant strains of HIV will rise dramatically, threatening decades of global progress.

We cannot allow this to happen – and we need your support to help stop it. We must protect funding for HIV care.

We are a global community. There is no wall high enough, no system strong enough, to stop HIV from crossing borders. This crisis affects us all.

We were on track to ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030. But if funding continues to be cut, we risk returning to the terrifying days at the height of the crisis.

Together with The Independent, who visited my community and met patients who have since died, I urge the government to protect the UK’s funding for HIV treatment, prevention and care, including support for the Global Fund, UNAIDS and frontline services.

This is a smart, cost-effective investment that prevents crises rather than paying for them later. Please act now to keep medicines flowing, stop new infections, and save lives.

Please add your name to help save lives.