Mark Lambert with Dr Eamonn O'Moore at one of the boards
A former heroin addict has spoken of his life with hepatitis C as it was revealed that more than 3,000 people across Oxfordshire could be living with the infection.
Mark Lambert, 37, contracted the illness by sharing needles during his 15-year habit.
As part of a Department of Health campaign called FaCe It, he is urging others to be aware of the infection, which is usually spread by the transfer of blood and can lie undetected for years before leading to serious liver damage or cancer.
High-risk groups, like injecting drug users, are more likely to get the infection, but the virus can now be treated with anti-viral drugs.
Mr Lambert, of Burchester Avenue, Barton, Oxford, said: "The lifestyle I led made me completely ignorant to this sort of thing. I started to get worried as more people were diagnosed, so I decided to get checked out.
"When I found I was positive, I felt a bit wounded, because there's a stigma attached to the infection. But up until three and a half years ago, I was still taking drugs and didn't have my priorities right, so I didn't deal with the infection. Since then, I've been in rehab and started to get myself sorted out."
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He has been lucky and not suffered any symptoms, allowing him to lead a normal life at college to train as a mentor helping other addicts get off drugs.
His anti-viral treatment is due to begin later this month.
He is featured as one of the giant portraits exhibited over the weekend at Gloucester Green, Oxford. They were taken by photographer and hepatitis C sufferer Michele Martinoli.
Mr Lambert said: "My treatment will not be a 100 per cent guaranteed, but I've got a 70-80 per cent chance the medication will clear up the infection and my liver will recover."
Clinicians hope the three-metre high portrait exhibition will prompt people in high risk groups to get tested.
Dr Eamonn O'Moore, communicable disease control consultant at the Thames Valley Health Protection Unit, said: "The problem with hepatitis C is that you can live with it for decades and it might not be obvious. You don't get the jaundice you get with other forms of hepatitis. About 3,000 people across Oxfordshire could have it without knowing."
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