Like many young women, Hannah Shewan Stevens and her friends often bemoan the state of modern romance. Anyone who has delved into the difficult world of online dating will, like them, have a horror story or two to share.

Dating today frequently starts with a snap judgment; a single photo that determines whether or not you’re worth getting to know better. Who needs that?

“Whenever I meet someone who has met their partner in real life rather than online, I’m like, ‘How? What magic did you do?’” says Hannah. “When I was 18 I met all the people I dated in bars, but now the only way you can meet someone romantically is through an app. And it just feels so much scarier that way, because it feels like you’ve got even more to hide.”

If her choice of words seems strange, that’s because Hannah would appear to be just like her friends. But the 24-year-old is actually one of 1.3 million people in the UK living with a visible difference, tens of thousands of whom have been helped by Changing Faces, one of the organisations supported in this year’s Telegraph Christmas Appeal.

Changing Faces provides practical support for individuals living with disfigurements, through counselling and networks, and wants to change the way those with a visible difference are perceived generally.