Providing support and promoting respect for everyone with a visible difference

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Our impact

We want to create a future where everyone with a visible difference can live the life they want. Find out how our work is already making a difference.

We are here to support the one in five people in the UK who are living with a mark, scar or condition that makes them look different.

People with visible differences tell us about the transformational impact our work can have. Our life-changing services build confidence and resilience. They give people with visible differences or disfigurements, the tools to manage their feelings, cope in different social settings, handle other people’s reactions or deal with transitions such as starting school.

On this page, we provide a summary of our activities and impact for the financial year 2023 – 2024 and how they relate to our strategic goals.

Improving access to support

Our first goal is to ensure everyone with a visible difference or disfigurement has access to the support they need.

One of the ways we measure this is through our annual surveys. In our initial survey with Savanta ComRes, 39% of people reported that limited availability was a barrier to accessing psychological support. This dropped to 27% in our 2022 survey. The reasons for this considerable drop are likely to be broader than the impact of our work, but it’s positive nonetheless.

Another measurement is the number of people enquiring about or referring to our services. We received 3,409 referrals (from individuals or from professionals) across our skin camouflage and wellbeing services in 2023/24.

Our support in numbers

  • 2,227

    Clients directly supported

    broken down into 1,397 skin camouflage clients and 931 wellbeing clients.

  • 39

    Campaigners

    who receive media and public speaking training to share campaign messages.

  • 99,327

    Unique page views

    of our online self-help pages, an 104% increase on the previous year.

Improving the wellbeing of people using our services

Satisfaction and outcomes are consistently high, with 87% of clients stating that the service helped them to manage their appearance-related concerns, and 97% of clients reporting that they were satisfied with the service they received.

We use the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale to measure the impact of our counselling, Peer Group Chat, and Skin Camouflage Services. Comparing the wellbeing scores before and after support showed a positive shift in wellbeing from an average metric score of 20.8 at the ‘pre’ stage to 22.3 at the ‘post’ stage (shift of 1.5).

The level of wellbeing indicated by the scores suggests that, on average, clients from from a lower-to-mid level of wellbeing before their sessions to a mid-level afterwards.

We’ve highlighted the experiences of some of our previous clients below. For more examples, please see our real stories.

Client experiences

Hannah's story

Hannah experienced bullying throughout school. She wants better education around visible differences so other children don't have to go through the same.

Woman with blonde hair wearing a black dress smiling in a warmly lit room

Lucy's story

Lucy's confidence was knocked during the pandemic, but, after attending Peer Group Chat, she found that she gained a lot more confidence than she expected to

Image of bearded man smiling wearing a black turban and blue-grey jacket.

Nirjeet's story

Nirjeet has experienced unwanted assumptions and judgements because of his vitiligo, but now he's on a mission for acceptance.

Who are we reaching?

We monitor the demographics of our clients to understand who we’re currently reaching and who might potentially be underrepresented.

  • Gender: 79.5% of clients identified as female, with 19.8% male and 0.1% self-identifying.
  • Disability: 18% of clients identified as being disabled.
  • Age range: The majority of our clients (80%) were aged 25+, with 20% of the clients we saw were children and young people (aged under 25). 
    • The most represented groups, by age, were those aged 30-39 (21.4%), 40-49 (20.8%) and 20-29 (18.4%).
    • Only 8.1% of our clients were aged 65+, and only 7.8% under 16.
  • Ethnicity: 59% of clients identified as White (British or other), 20% as Asian/Asian British and 8% as Black/African/Caribbean/Black British.
  • Type of visible difference: While clients may have more than one condition, the main conditions seen were skin conditions at 46% (of which, Vitiligo was the most prevalent) scarring at 29%, burns at 4%, and cancer-related conditions at 4%.

Increase understanding

Our second strategic goal is to increase the understanding and acceptance of visible difference and disfigurement, whilst reducing prejudice and discrimination.

Some of the ways we measure this are through the reach of published stories and media coverage containing the experiences of those with visible differences.

Awareness raising in numbers

  • 49

    Real stories

    published, with over 55,000 unique page views

  • 492

    Media hits

    380 of these included quotes or stories from someone with a visible difference

  • 315m

    Total media reach

    Media pieces that included quotes or stories from people living with a visible difference reached 258 million people.

The impact of our campaigns

In 2023/24 our campaigns aimed to raise awareness of the impact that negative behaviours can have on people with a visible difference.

  • Our annual Face Equality Week was a celebration of those with visible differences for who they are, their passions and centred some stories of creativity. “People with a visible difference deserve to be recognised for their talents instead of being judged and underestimated because of the way they look.” – Bronwen, Campaigner.
  • For Halloween 2023, we built on our I Am Not Your Villain campaign by sending an open letter to UK streaming platforms, asking them to consider the impact of the negative stereotypes the films they stream perpetuate for people with visible differences, particularly around Halloween. 46 articles and international syndicated pieces were generated from the campaign, reaching 135 million people.
  • In total, we reached over 315 million people through 492 media hits. Of these, 380 included quotes or stories from someone with a visible difference, reaching 258 million people.

Our education work

We continue to work with teachers and health professionals, both of whom have an important role in supporting people with a visible difference. Our education resources were downloaded 3,333 times, with our PSHE-accredited A World of Difference resources accounting for 78% of these.

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Get involved in our work

Donate, campaign, fundraise, volunteer or partner with us – whether you’re an individual supporter or a business, there are loads of ways to support our work.

Our annual reports and accounts

View our annual reports and accounts to see our income sources and how we use the funds we raise to support people with a visible difference.

Donate now

By making a kind donation through our secure online form, you will help us continue our vital work supporting people living with a visible difference.