SMALL CHARITIES BIG HEARTS

Four celebrities tell us about the special causes that will get a boost this month with your help.

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Joining forces to highlight the inspiring new Small Charity Week campaign, four special celebrities have spoken exclusively to HELLO! about the charities close to their hearts. In these moving interviews, the writer, presenter and activist Katie Piper, actor Gary Hollywood and TV presenters Michelle Ackerley and Scarlette Douglas talk about why public support for the campaign - which runs from 23 to 30 June - is so needed.

Organised by Big Give, Global's Make Some Noise and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the match-funded campaign sees philanthropists and funders double the public's donations to the 189 charities, which each have annual incomes of less than £1 million.

"Small charities are the beating heart of our communities," says James Reed, chair of the trustees of Big Give. "But they're facing a triple whammy of rising costs, falling income and increasing demand.

"Every donation made this week will go twice as far - helping these small charities stay open and keep making a difference. I hope people will get behind this campaign and choose a small charity to support."

KATIE PIPER

For Katie, 41, teaching her daughters Belle, 11, and Penelope, seven, how to navigate life is extremely important. "I try to lead by example and with compassion," she tells us. "I think they absorb that, and they watch you." She certainly demonstrates her caring side, having founded the Katie Piper Foundation in 2009 to support burns survivors - something Katie experienced herself as the victim of an acid attack in 2008. "It's not about me at all any more; it's about the people we help," she says.

When burns survivors come to her charity, their lives change for ever. "It feels irreversible; they're trying to find a way to rebuild the quality of their life and live it to the full.