Katie Piper is calling upon people to donate any unwanted apparel and homeware to raise money for charity after donating 10 bin bags of her own cast off clothing.

"I think so many of us hoard things and if you turn it into a donation it’s a much better use for it," she tells me. 

The campaign, Give Up Clothes For Good, is the UK’s longest running charity clothing collection campaign from labels-for-less retailer TK Maxx, and has raised £25.5 million for Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens through clothes and cash donations since launching in 2004.

Last month Katie joined forces, commending everybody on their efforts so far, including a special mention of the Watford branch, but encourage people to keep going.

“It’s a really great initiative” Katie tells me. “One of the reasons I think it’s such a good idea is that it engages people who might not think about giving to charity, it makes it easy for them if they’re in store shopping they can just drop their clothes off there.”

Katie hit the headlines in 2009 after she bravely waived her anonymity rights following a sexual assault by her ex-boyfriend who went on to arrange an attack during which acid was thrown over her face.

Later that year she told her with Channel 4 on the documentary Katie: My Beautiful Face, and has since appeared on TV and radio several times as well as publishing four books.

After everything that Katie has experienced in her life I asked if she had any words of wisdom for fellow women, she pauses for thought and then tells me: “Strength is key, nurturing your own inner strength. Knowing when to be assertive and know your boundaries and stand your ground and not to doubt that strength because other people can push it down in you.

“Some people only draw on their strength in a crisis but I think it’s about knowing that strength is there. Anything can happen at any point in your life and you need to find a way to deal with is. It puts it into perspective of what is and isn’t important.”

Katie, who became a mother in 2014, has a charity of her own as well as working with others. I wondered if it was important to her to do work such as this, to set an example to her daughter and she says that it is, before telling me: “There’s a really nice affirmation that says always help somebody as you might be the only person who does.

"It is easy to look at charities and think they have a lot of supporters, but if everybody thinks like that then they will have none.”

For more information visit tkmaxx.com.