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The only Wales based charity with a focus on HIV and related conditions.

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The only Wales based charity with a focus on HIV and related conditions. 〰️

About Fast Track Cymru

Who is Fast Track Cymru?

Fast Track Cymru is the only Wales based charity with a focus on HIV, viral hepatitis, TB and related conditions. We work collaboratively regionally and nationally (and even internationally) to raise awareness whilst combatting stigma.

Fast Track Cymru is a collaborative network of Fast Track Regions across Wales working to collectively reach the UNAIDS and Welsh Government targets in all Welsh cities, towns and rural areas across the seven Health Board Regions.

In July 2025 Fast Track Cymru became the first Fast Track Nation in the world, with all seven health boards signed up to the Global Fast Track Cities initiative.

Each of the seven health board regions has a coalition of interested parties, including clinicians and other health professionals, local authorities, academic researchers, educators, community groups, third sector organisations and people with lived experience all of whom are invested in working collaboratively in Wales. While each region is autonomous, they all feed into the national Fast Track Cymru network to work together and inform best practice.

Fast Track Cymru is committed to reaching zero new HIV and viral hepatitis transmissions in Wales, achieving the UNAIDS 95/95/95 targets and the goals of the Wales HIV Action Plan.

What does Fast Track Cymru do?

Fast Track Cymru are dedicated to ending HIV stigma, achieving zero new HIV, viral hepatitis and TB transmissions in Wales by 2030, and increasing equitable access to health care for all whilst working collaboratively across all sectors and amplifying the voices of those with lived experience. Our work focuses on six key areas, each addressing essential aspects surrounding HIV and related conditions.

Explore how we’re making a difference:

  • We bring people, organisations and communities together to create regional working groups that lead, with support, our seven Fast Track Regions.

    • Establishing Regional Coalitions: There are 7 Regional coalitions, covering all of Wales. Local Authorities, Health Boards, organisations, charities and community groups as well as those with lived experience work together in their area. These groups are autonomous but feed directly into Fast Track Cymru whom also share resources and provide a Regional Development Officer too. Read more about our Fast Track Network in Wales.

    • Supporting Local Peer Support Networks: Supporting the development and promotion of peer support groups with our work with Positively UK and other charities like THT, as well as independent groups that have been created across Wales. Read more about Peer Support Groups in Wales.

    • HIV in Education: Fast Track Cymru has developed innovative cross-curricular HIV education resources to support Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in Wales. Educate, Embed, Engage, Empower: more than education, this is a commitment to respect, inclusion and justice. The resources integrate HIV education across subjects and key stages, support the HIV Action Plan for Wales and the Welsh Government’s RSE Code, and are co-created with clinicians, educators, young people, families and people living with HIV, with accessibility and lived experience at their core. We have also collaborated with partners on other educational projects in the past too. To find out more about our work in the Education Sector please see here.

    Our campaigns drive awareness, encourage testing and prevention of HIV and related conditions whilst combatting stigma with impactful messaging and outreach. We utilise community champions in all our campaigns whilst ensuring that they are co-developed with communities and those with lived experience across our regional and national networks. We use multifaceted approaches that include communication, education, and community engagement.

    • Wales HIV Testing Week: Supporting Public Health Wales and Sexual Health Wales in promoting widespread testing and local community events. In 2024, Wales HIV Testing Week was recognised with awards in the "Charity/Not for Profit" and "Diversity and Inclusion" categories at the PRCA DARE Awards Cymru, which is the leading awards for PR and communications professionals in Wales. Find out more here.

    • Other sexual health campaigns: We work in partnership with Public Health Wales and their communications teams to design, disseminate and evaluate numerous campaigns throughout the year whilst keeping community voices centred.

    • Trailblazing Campaigns: We also create and run our own targeted campaigns, including, “Stop HIV Stigma” and “Are you PrEPped?”, reaching millions of people per campaign. Check our Stop HIV Stigma campaign in Wales here. And our Are you PrEPped? campaign here.

    • Educational Material: Creating free resources, videos, animations, and exhibitions to inform and educate the general public on HIV prevention and treatment. Check out our downloadable leaflets.

    • Training: We deliver training sessions across Wales to numerous businesses, organisations, health and social care teams as well as for community groups. This training includes content co-created with people with lived experiences, is sensitive to marginalised communities and covers a range of topics from data, language, stigma and some facts some people are surprised by. To find out more about the training we can offer please email fasttrackcities@hiv.wales

  • We shape policies that improve the lives of people impacted by HIV and/or related conditions and support Wales' HIV Action Plan.

    • HIV Action Plan for Wales: supporting the development, implementation, and delivery of the HIV Action Plan for Wales. Find out more about the HIV Action Plan for Wales here

    • Advocating with People Living with HIV and related conditions: Collaborating with Welsh Government planning groups to ensure representation and inclusion in policymaking.

    • Influencing and Advising Policymakers: Providing expertise to decision-makers, including Members of the Senedd, councillors, and public health directors, to drive informed policy change.

  • Partnership work is the core and centre of what we do. We work with local, regional, national and international organisations to strengthen strategies and share best practices. To do this we utilise numerous mechanisms that include our Regional Steering Groups and our National Advisory Council.

    • Fast Track Cymru Conference: Hosting our national conferences to enable networking, dialogue and innovation across communities, regions, service providers, and policymakers in Wales.

    • Celtic Coalition: Collaborating with Ireland and Scotland to exchange knowledge and develop coordinated strategies.

    • Professional Development: Engaging in global HIV education and policy events to stay at the cutting edge of advancements in the field.

    • Peer Support with Positively UK: We’re proud to be partnering with Positively UK to build a peer support network across Wales; one that reaches the people who need it most and truly reflects what communities in Wales want and deserve.

    • Fast Track Cities Network: We are part of the UK and Ireland Fast Track Cities Network where we share learning, problem solve and disseminate other information. We are hosting the UK and Ireland Conference in Cardiff in June 2026.

    • Consultation, Inclusion and Signposting: We are here to support organisations with policies, advice or support relating to HIV and related conditions. We also sit on numerous forums, working groups and networks relating to HIV and related conditions regionally, nationally and internationally. We have a constellation of contacts enabling us to signpost individuals or organisations as required; if we can’t help directly we can signpost to someone who can.

  • We rely on evidence-based approaches to measure impact and improve outcomes.

    • Impact Reporting: Publishing evaluations on initiatives such as campaigns, training events and projects. Read our reports and publications here.

    • Research & Evaluation Support: Supporting initiatives like the "Testing 4 Testing" GP-led messaging project.

    • Research and Evaluation Network: Providing a platform for universities and researchers across Wales to network and collaborate.

  • Community engagement is at the heart of Fast Track Cymru’s work, ensuring that our efforts are shaped by the voices, experiences, and needs of the people most affected by HIV. viral hepatitis, TB and related conditions in Wales. By working collaboratively with communities, we build trust, reduce stigma, and create more effective, inclusive approaches to prevention, testing, and care. It also enables us to disseminate accurate information, raise awareness, and provide free resources directly to communities, ensuring support is accessible, relevant, and impactful.

    ·       Local and National Events: Holding stalls at events including, but not exclusively, Pride Events, the Royal Welsh Show, World AIDS Day activities, Freshers Fairs, County Fairs, HIV Testing Week Stalls, events around awareness days such as Men’s Mental Health Week, as well as those aimed at specific underserved or marginalised groups such as asylum seekers, those who are homeless or those from the global majority community. If you want to book us for your space or event please email fasttrackcities@hiv.wales

The Fast Track Cymru Team

Fast Track Cymru is overseen by an experienced, diverse and knowledgeable Board of Trustees. Our Staff Team are managed by our Executive Director, who supports three part time Regional Development Managers.

To ensure our work is rooted in meaningful collaboration, we are guided by an Advisory Council made up of experts, passionate leaders, and individuals with lived experience, representing organisations from across sectors. The Council meets quarterly and includes designated representatives from our regional networks, alongside members of our Board.

Our Fast Track Regions operate autonomously while also forming an integral part of Fast Track Cymru. Each region brings together a diverse range of partners committed to raising awareness of HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, other blood-borne viruses, and sexually transmitted infections. Membership includes representatives from health boards, local authorities, charities, and community groups, alongside people with lived experience.

Our Board of Trustees

Dr Olwen Williams OBE

Chair

Olwen (she/her) has been working in the field of Sexual Health and HIV since the late eighties. Driven by a deep commitment to equality, she has striven to ensure the marginalised and vulnerable have access to high quality, multilingual healthcare. As a Welsh speaker, she recognised the importance of being able to receive care through medium of Welsh and returned to North Wales as a Consultant physician in 1992, going on to establish the regions HIV service, North Wales Sexual Assault Referal Centre SARC and Sexual health/ HIV services in H.M. Berwyn Prison. She has held key leadership posts, laterly, chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges in Wales, Vice President Royal College of Physicians(RCP) in Wales. During her time as President of British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) 2018-20, she championed the establishment of Fast Track Cardiff – furthermore she expressed a vision of Wales becoming the first Fast Track Nation . Following retirement from clinical practice , she spent 3 years as Associate Director of Clinical Leadership at Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) before taking up the Chair of Fast Track Cymru.
Contact Olwen at: ChairFastTrackCymru@outlook.com

Lisa Power MBE

Vice Chair

Lisa Power (she/her) is one of the co-founders of Fast Track in Wales, having previously been a consultant for UNAIDS, the HIV Justice Network, the European AIDS Treatment Group and a number of other HIV organisations. Prior to this she was Policy Director for Terrence Higgins Trust, developed their treatment services and work with African communities and long term survivors and coordinated the HIV voluntary sector in a London consortium. She has presented and published extensively on HIV criminalisation, on HIV and ageing and on sexual health information resources. She appears regularly in TV and radio documentaries about HIV and was the historical advisor to the acclaimed Its A Sin series. She is also a well known queer activist and historian and a Trustee of the national LGBTQ+ museum, Queer Britain

Dr David Gillespie

Trustee - (Research and Evaluation)

Dr David Gillespie (he/him) is a Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Director at Cardiff University’s Centre for Trials Research and co-directs the Wales Applied Virology Unit. A medical statistician by training, he has designed and analysed clinical trials since 2007, completing a PhD in 2016 focused on medication adherence and its methodological complexities. His research centres on infectious diseases (including sexually transmitted infections and HIV), and antimicrobial stewardship, with a strong emphasis on the design and evaluation of public health interventions. Dr Gillespie has held a Health Research Fellowship examining HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and plays an active role in shaping HIV policy in Wales, supporting evidence-based approaches to prevention and care. He is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration in virology and is a methodological expert in causal modelling, clinical trial design, and handling missing data. Although, as a Charity, Fast Track Cymru does not lead on research he utilises his knowledge and experience of this field to the Board of Trustees whilst offering updates and information relating to work in the area.

Dr Darren Cousins

Trustee (Clinical Care)

Darren (he/him) is a board member for Fast Track Cymru but usually works as a Sexual Health & HIV Consultant for Cardiff & Vale. He has trained and worked across most of the UK health systems in the past few years and has a longstanding interest in HIV prevention and digital health initiatives. The privilege of seeing people who attend clinic having access to better diagnoses, treatments and preventions such as PrEP means he has the best job in the world as a doctor. He also has insight into the challenges that matter to people day to day, and works hard to make sure that services reflect what people need and want to get the best possible sexual health.  Darren is particularly interested in ensuring that digital services are safe, reliable and imaginative to need the needs of all the populations. He also works in electronic prescribing in Cardiff and is currently the BASHH Cymru Wales chair, representing the of clinicians in Welsh Government policy on Sexual Health and HIV. He also works as an External Clinical Advisor for the London Sexual Health Programme.

Zoe Couzens OBE

Trustee (Public Health and Services)

Zoe (she/her) has worked in Public Health in Wales for more than twenty years. Prior to this she was a dietitian specialising in HIV care.  She is proud to be part of Fast Track Cymru, a coalition that is bringing people together to inform the public about blood borne viruses thereby reducing stigma and normalising testing so that Wales can provide the care and treatment that will support the elimination of transmission of BBVs in Wales.

Owen Blacker

Trustee

Owen (he/him) has been active in the HIV/AIDS space since coming out into the Early AIDS Crisis while studying for a biology degree in the 1990s. A technologist in the public sector by day, he has been involved in non-profit governance for most of his adult life, most recently as chair of the board (and chief "spreadsheet guy") for the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group. Joining the Fast Track Cymru board in 2026, Owen is looking forward to helping continue our impact in sexual health yng Nghymru.

Our Team

Sarah Maslen-Roberts

FT Cymru Executive Director

Sarah Maslen (she/her) used to teach sexual health in schools with a particular focus on inclusivity. This led her to recognise the disparities for some young people in her classroom(s) but also the need for wider and updated education on topics including HIV. Consequently, she worked with local authorities, school nurses, teachers, young people themselves and other relevant stake holders to change the curriculum in the area she was working within. She has continued to be committed to raising awareness and challenging HIV related stigma via education.

In 2023 she was appointed as the Fast Track Cymru Development Worker for the Swansea Bay area where she relished opportunities to connect with underrepresented groups and hold events in the community with the steering group and sexual health clinic staff. As well as being the Fast Track Cymru Manager Sarah runs Undivided Training and Consultancy which focuses on LGBTQ+ inclusion and awareness, she is an Executive Director of Trans in the City, is involved with the Welsh Government’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Group, supports an LGBTQ+ Youth Group in Swansea (GoodVibes) and is a show jumping coach for a young person with additional needs. Sarah is committed to ending HIV transmission in Wales by 2030 and says we have all the tools to do this.

Alex Porter

FT Cardiff & Vale, Gwent and CTM Staff

Alex (she/her) is a born and bred Cardiffian with a passion for health promotion and has worked in healthcare for over 15 years. A qualified nurse in A&E, she chose to expand her scope of practice to try and have a more active role in health promotion to encourage prevention rather than curative medicine. 

She has loved getting stuck into her “cities” and seeing the growth that comes from collaborative working with a group of galvanised individuals.

Gillian Letting

FT North Wales Staff

Gillian is a passionate peer-support and community development professional with extensive experience working alongside people living with HIV and other marginalised communities. Her work is grounded in lived experience, compassion and a strong belief that people should have a meaningful voice in shaping the services that affect their lives.

Gillian has worked in peer support, advocacy, training and research for many years, including with Positively UK, George House Trust and 4MNetwork. She is also developing peer-support work within NHS clinics in North Wales, working alongside healthcare professionals to ensure that lived experience remains at the heart of service delivery.

She has contributed to national and international HIV research and advocacy initiatives, including the CHIPS and CHIPS+ steering committees, and has co-authored research exploring the experiences and priorities of women living with HIV.

As Fast Track Cymru’s North Wales Development Officer, Gillian is passionate about building partnerships, tackling HIV stigma and health inequalities, and ensuring that people affected by HIV are empowered to have their voices heard.

Outside of work, Gillian is a proud mum who enjoys spending time with her family, exploring North Wales and finding new ways to make a positive difference in her community.

Patsy Hudson

T4T and Community Engagement

Patsy (she/they) has been arguing against HIV stigma since the 1980s, but became actively involved in 2001 when carrying out a series of research projects for Yorkshire MESMAC, later joining their Board of Trustees. With a varied work background including pharmacy work, research, adult education, social work and voluntary sector management she moved to North Wales for work in 2011, and is keen to ensure that all areas of Wales are equally represented in service design and decision-making. She joined Pride Cymru in January 2023, also working on a project to support the development of grassroots Pride organisations across Wales.

Patsy runs the online social group Rustic Rainbow for LGBTQ+ people in North Wales and sings with the Proud Marys, Chester’s LGBT choir. Her remaining time is taken up by trying to keep up with her loveable but disobedient dogs.

Jason Davies

FT Swansea Bay and West Wales Staff

Jason (he/him) has a personal, professional and academic interest in both national and international issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion. While working at Umbrella Cymru, he gained in-depth knowledge of the diverse challenges faced by underserved and marginalized communities in Wales, including those related to inequitable access to sexual and reproductive health services. In October 2020, he served as a regional panellist for Metro Charity’s COVID-19 Fund, assessing and allocating emergency funding, provided by Comic Relief, to eligible grassroots, community-led organisations across Wales.

Angharad Pickering

FT Powys Staff

Alongside her role with Fast Track Cymru, Angharad (she/her) works as a Community Health Protection and Wellbeing Officer within the Powys Health Protection Team. She has a background spanning both the public and third sectors and is passionate about reducing health inequalities, improving wellbeing, and increasing access to services for individuals and communities who may face barriers to support.

Her work includes developing and delivering community health improvement programmes, health protection initiatives, outreach activities, and partnership projects across Powys. Angharad has a particular interest in HIV prevention, blood-borne viruses, sexual health promotion, and reducing stigma through education and community engagement. She has been involved in the development of Fast Track Powys since its launch and has enjoyed bringing together organisations from across sectors to strengthen local partnerships and improve awareness, testing, and prevention opportunities.

Outside of work, Angharad is a keen gardener and enjoys spending time outdoors, appreciating the positive impact nature can have on health and wellbeing.