Today’s life-saving medication can prevent you passing on HIV to others.

You can live a full and long life with HIV – if you are diagnosed early.

Karl joined Queens Park Rangers in 2013 from Wolverhampton Wanderers, whom he captained 31 times in 2010-11. Karl was a key figure in the team’s fight to stay in the Premiership. Emerging successfully from that battle, the defensive midfielder has joined another: the one against HIV stigma and for better testing.

“When Saving Lives made me aware about the way in which stigma can actively damage peoples’ health – by dissuading them from getting testing, and volunteering to receive treatment, I knew I had to get involved,” says Karl. “The more people that speak out, the more people might be persuaded that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Karl was with Wolves from 2006, playing for Stoke City and Cheltenham Town before that. He first captained the team in late 2006, and was from that time a mainstay in the first squad. He didn’t take long to make a mark at QPR, either – he scored his first goal there in a game against Bolton on January 28th, 2014.

“Diagnosing more people with HIV will help those people get the treatment they need, and prevent more becoming infection,” Karl explains. “I’m happy to do anything I can in terms of speaking out or representing Saving Lives: it really is an important message that people should get tested regularly, and not be afraid of it.”

We couldn’t agree more.