A few weeks ago my family and I were looking through old photograph albums; it was fascinating.

Memories came flooding back of places visited, friends made but now lost touch with, children and grandchildren well to the fore from birth to the present.

Causing great interest and amusement especially were those faded sepia ones showing long dead ancestors. The clothes first caught people’s attention, because of the elaborate style.

No lying on the beach then but upright formal figures in a photographer’s studio. But a chance remark about our likeness to some of them made us realise how our faces distinguish us as a person.

After the albums had been put away and my family had gone home I began to think about how we recognise people. Is it only from facial features? I began studying people from behind to see if I could recognise them. And, believe me, I couldn’t.

I then started wondering about facial disfigurement and the attitude of the general public. Are they embarrassed, do they feel sorry, think the person is brave or do they even pity them?

It is important to look beyond and see the person inside who is just as exceptional or average as the next person.

But what part has television and the cinema played in how negatively people view disfigurement?

It seems that to portray an evil or villainous person they just need to add a large scar or distort the face and there you have it. That person is evil (think of James Bond’s villains). The public has been encouraged to think disfigurement is an indicator of someone who is untrustworthy and to be avoided.

A charity called Changing Faces has made a short film about disfigurement that will be shown during cinema programmes.

Oxfordshire Unlimited has a member who has suffered from this stigma. She never thought about being different or discriminated against but, once out and about in public, it was a different story.

Attending job interviews was the worst thing.

Undeterred, she set about increasing her communication skills and got people to look past her appearance and see her as the fun, feisty and intelligent person she is. The job she was offered sent her all over the world to champion people with a facial disfigurement.

Help Unlimited to campaign against this sort of discrimination.