'No make-up selfie' trend raises $1.9m for cancer research

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The "no make-up selfie" trend has helped charity Cancer Research UK raise more than £1 million through 800,000 text donations since yesterday.

The campaign, which began on social media on Tuesday afternoon (local time), asks women to post photos of themselves online without make-up, with the hashtag #nomakeupselfie.

Cancer Research UK told the Telegraph Wonder Women that it received almost a million unexpected donations yesterday, most of which came in via text message.

The charity also saw a rise in people donating at their Cancer Research UK shops, and a huge peak in visits to its website.

The trend seems to have begun with author Laura Lippman who posted a picture of her bare face in support of actress Kim Novak who was criticised for her looks, but has since become associated with charity Cancer Research after people began adding the hashtag #breastcancerawareness to the selfies.

After noticing the trend, the charity sent out a tweet saying: "We're loving your #cancerawareness #nomakeupselfie pics! The campaign isn't ours but every £ helps #beatcancersooner."

The selfie campaign has also sparked a Facebook page No Make Up Selfie For Cancer Awareness which had more than 219,000 'likes' at the time of writing.

We're loving your #cancerawareness #nomakeupselfie pics! The campaign isn't ours but every £ helps #beatcancersooner pic.twitter.com/nNb0RSEitr

Some celebrities are also supporting the campaign such as actress Kym Marsh and singer VV Brown who wrote on Twitter: "My aunty Sandra sadly died to Breast Cancer. This is my #nomakeupselfie for #breastcancerawareness. Spread the word!"

My aunty Sandra sadly died to Breast Cancer.This is my #nomakeupselfie for #breastcancerawareness. Spread the word ! pic.twitter.com/FwcjEpiHVk

The #nomakeupselfie trend has been highly criticised for having little to do with breast cancer, and for not raising money for charity, but Cancer Research UK's latest comments prove those critics wrong.

Carolan Davidge, director of communications at Cancer Research UK said: "The #nomakeupselfie Twitter trend isn't something Cancer Research UK started but it's great to see so many people getting involved to help raise awareness of cancer amongst their friends and family. If people would like to choose to support our work to beat cancer sooner, they can visit cruk.org."

Visit the Cancer Society of New Zealand website here.