The survivor of an attack by serial killer Dennis Nilson has come out of hiding to fight a takeover at a specialist HIV centre.

KhaRa Willis (corr) changed his name from Carl Stottor to escape the notoriety of coming close to death at the hands of the murderer who butchered 15 young men.

But he has come back into the public eye to defend the Sussex Beacon, in Bevendean Road, Brighton, where he has been a patient on and off for nine years.

The charity's trustees announced this month that they have asked the Martlets Hospice in Hove to manage the Beacon for a year starting next month. (june) They said the move was the only way to rescue the HIV centre from financial disaster.

But Mr Willis, 46, of Southover Street, Brighton, said patients were concerned that the Beacon might lose its specialist status.

There have been a number of key redundancies at the Beacon, which Mr Willis said means the management team will be headed by cancer, not HIV, experts.

He said: "What concerns me is that the Beacon will become an extension of the Martlets, where terminally ill cancer patients will take precedence over HIV."

In 1983 Nilson was found guilty of six counts of murder and of attempting to kill Mr Willis, then Carl Stottor, and another man.

Mr Willis did his best to continue with a normal life, despite the terrible psychological fallout.

He has always suffered from diabetes and nine years ago he was diagnosed with HIV. Because of his status, his family disowned him.

He said often people with HIV did not have relatives to help them and relied on the Beacon for this support.

Without it, Mr Willis said, he would probably be dead. It helps people come to terms with their illness, supports them through treatment and if they become ill and helps them deal with having a disease that is still treated with prejudice.

He said: "I have had many friends who have killed themselves because of the stigma.

"I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for the Beacon. They just care so much and they are unbelievable people.

"It isn't just about gay people. It is about keeping the Beacon running for everyone, whether gay, straight or whatever.

"The Martlets do brilliant work but they are not HIV specialists."

He said staff were unhappy with the plans but were too afraid to speak out. Workers and patients, he claimed, were not consulted about the decision to form a partnership.

He said: "If the Beacon was in crisis, they could have done a press release and got public funding.

"There was a hell of a fight when the Beacon was first set up. The local community would get behind them."

The Beacon's trustees have promised that it will retain its specialist status and will be run as a separate entity to the Martlets, with its own fund-raising.

Chairman Michael Le Garst told The Argus last week that the Beacon nearly closed in January and last-minute decisions had been necessary in an attempt to secure its future.

Caroline Lower, chief executive of the Martlets, said it recognised Beacon staff were experts in HIV and would work closely with them.

Sussex Beacon, which opened as a hospice, is one of the last remaining treatment centres of its kind in the UK. Funding for HIV has been slashed by Government even though the number of new diagnoses is increasing. It is now viewed as a chronic, not a terminal, condition.

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