The no makeup selfie trend may have sparked a huge cancer awareness vs narcissism debate, but it is arguably more productive than previous viral trends, if the £1 million in donations made within just 24 hours is anything to go by.

Cancer Research UK has received more than 800,000 text donations since it began sharing the text code for donating on its Facebook and Twitter pages yesterday.

Since the beginning of the week, newsfeeds on social media websites have been littered with photos of women without even a stroke of mascara on to raise awareness in support of Cancer Research UK, Independent.co.uk reports.

The bare faces are usually accompanied by the hastags #nomakeupselfie and #cancerawareness, as well as nominations for their friends to follow suit and continue the chain of photos.

Some of the posts are dedicated to loved ones who have died from the disease, while others are taken by survivors supporting the charity.

Carolan Davidge, director of communications at Cancer Research UK said in a statement: "The #nomakeupselfie Twitter trend isn't something Cancer Research UK started £ but it's great to see so many people getting involved to help raise awareness of cancer amongst their friends and family. If people would like to choose to support our work to beat cancer sooner, they can visit cruk.org."