Vicar releases touching video to reveal battle with HIV after attack two years ago

A vicar who was diagnosed as HIV positive after being attacked two years ago has used the power of the internet to share her story with her congregation.

Rev Hayley Young, from Portsmouth, began to lose her hair and suffer other side effects such as fatigue from the medication she was prescribed for the virus - so, to quell the circulating rumours about her health, she decided to go public.

In the moving, deeply personal video, the 28-year-old Rev Young stands silently as she holds up a series of cardboard signs which tell her story.

It was played to her congregation at Hayling Island Baptist Church, before being posted to YouTube with the message:

The messages reveal her feelings upon being diagnosed, the anxiety and fear she goes through as she battles the disease, and the comfort she finds in her faith - as well as the reactions of other people, which have not always been kind.

The serious topic is littered with dark humour, as she jokes that - thanks to her hair loss - at least she doesn't have to worry about frizz in the rain, and suggests beer may be partly to blame for her new-found clumsiness.

In the video, some of the cardboard notes read:

Rev Young began working at the church on Hayling Island in 2010, and was called into the ministry a year later.

Her Twitter account is full of pictures of her leading weddings and services, as well as helping out with children and young people in the church's Sunday School and children's clubs.

Many members of the church and other members of the clergy have posted positive responses to the revelation, both on the YouTube video and on Twitter.

Nickie Howard commented: "You are Hayley.... Our Hayley, we respect, love and admire you the same as we always have done."

Alan Griffiths added: "Rev Hayley, surely the most extraordinary, courageous person it has been my priviledge to know.

"The reckless actions of others and illness may have weakened the body but you are surely anointed and blessed by God, and continue to be a blessing to all those who know and love you."

In full, her message reads: