In this paper we deal with the four-point singular boundary value problem $$ \begin {cases} (\phi _p(u'(t)))'+q(t)f(t,u(t),u'(t))=0,& t\in (0,1),\\ u'(0)-\alpha u(\xi )=0, \quad u'(1)+\beta u(\eta )=0, \end {cases} $$ where $\phi _p(s)=|s|^{p-2}s$, $p>1$, $0<\xi <\eta <1$, $\alpha ,\beta >0$, $q\in C[0,1]$, $q(t)>0$, $t\in (0,1)$, and $f\in C([0,1]\times (0,+\infty )\times \mathbb R,(0,+\infty ))$ may be singular at $u = 0$. By using the well-known theory of the Leray-Schauder degree, sufficient conditions are given for the existence of positive solutions.