A selfie of thanks: Imperial College’s Epigenetics Unit, including scientific fellow Dr James Flanagan
Cancer charities have received a windfall from a social media craze that involves women posting photos of themselves unmade-up, along with the hashtag #nomakeupselfie, to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The latest ‘selfie’ craze saw women bombard social media sites, mainly Facebook and Twitter, with the idea being to use the ‘selfies’ to highlight the risks of cancer while raising funds for research – and women are posting the photos online, then donating to a range of cancer charities, primarily Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign and Breast Cancer Care.
More than £8m has been raised so far and the #nomakeupselfie hashtag has appeared on Twitter more than 50,000 times, and selfies are still being tweeted and posted on Facebook, as women continuing to nominate their friends to join in.
James Elliot, head of digital engagement at the charity Breast Cancer Campaign, said: “We have continued to see donations roll in as a result of the #nomakeupselfie campaign.
“We couldn’t be more delighted, this campaign demonstrates the powerful impact that social media can have in raising awareness of breast cancer. Without it we wouldn’t have received over £140,000 to spend on life-saving research.”
Breast cancer survivors took the impromptu campaign one step further by posting images of themselves post-mastectomy, showing their surgery results. Men have also begun helping with fundraising efforts, posting selfies of themselves wearing make-up.
Breast Cancer Campaign-funded scientists showed their thanks by posting their own selfies, including a group shop of scientific fellow Dr James Flanagan and the Epigenetics Unit at Imperial College London.
Cancer Research UK said it had had more than 800,000 text donations in the latter half of last week, raising close to £1.5m.
The campaign has however, attracted criticism from those who believe that the selfie element is an exercise in vanity, and that people should donate to charity without feeling the need to post photos of themselves.