Karim Zeroual backing new end-of-life charity drive

Karim Zeroual is backing a new end-of-life charity drive.

The ‘EastEnders’ actor and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ finalist, 30, has joined a joint fundraiser run by Superdrug and Marie Curie to urge shoppers to top up their beauty purchases with 20p to raise cash for terminally ill patients.

Referring to how he and his partner Yazminn Greene had their first daughter, Zayna Romy Zeroual, on 11 March, he said: “As a recent first time dad I’m always finding myself having to stock up on essentials, and it’s brilliant that it’s now so easy for people to donate to Marie Curie when they do so.

“The work they do to help people at the end of their lives is so valuable – so I encourage everyone to donate their spare change to the charity on their next Superdrug shop.

“Twenty pence can feel like very little compared to what you’d spend overall, and yet it helps to make a monumental difference to this vital charity.”

Superdrug’s new Yellow Pennies fundraising initiative in partnership with hospice charity Marie Curie comes as a survey revealed shoppers in Britain are set to spend £1.4 billion on health and beauty this summer.

The joint fundraiser aims to get shoppers to top up their Superdrug buys with a 20p donation so the cash can go towards funding the vital work of the end of life charity.

If only one in five Brits chose to donate 20p on just one Superdrug purchase this summer, it would raise more than £2 million for the charity.

An estimated 150,000 people die every year without the care they need, with nine in 10 of people who pass away in Britain today needing palliative care.

A press release for the Yellow Pennies campaign said: “Without this care and support, people are dying frightened, alone, and in avoidable pain and suffering. “Stressed and exhausted families often do not know where to turn to for help.”

Sophie Graham, a clinical nurse manager at Marie Curie, said: “This campaign is so much more important than you might think.

“Every 20p donation will go straight into funding vital hospice and hospice care at home services, and Marie Curie healthcare assistants and nurses like me.

“It all adds up, and they will allow us to be there for even more people when they need us the most.”