Helena Bonham Carter leads Countdown To Zero child deaths campaign

The Cinderella star has joined the likes of boyband Union J, Dominic West, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Mary Portas, Mel Giedroyc and Arlene Phillips in posing for #CountdownToZero pictures, and is encouraging the public to tweet their own.

17,000 children are dying every day from preventable causes like pneumonia and malaria due to a lack of basic healthcare where they are born.

Myleene Klass, a Save the Children Ambassador said: “6.3 million children in the poorest countries all over the world are dying every year from easily preventable or treatable causes, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. To us, they seem like small problems, easily fixed with a trip to the chemist, but in many other countries, there aren’t enough doctors or nurses, medicine or clinics within easy reach when children become ill.

“We could be the generation to end this. The countdown to get the number of preventable child deaths to zero needs to start now – every child must be able to get basic healthcare – no matter where they’re born, who their parents are or how much money they have.”

Since 1990, the world has almost halved the number of children dying needlessly. At the UN summit in September, world leaders have the chance to make commitments that could mean that, by 2030, every child has the basic healthcare that they need to survive.

You can support the campaign by tweeting your own #CountdownToZero and signing Save the Children’s petition at savethechildren.org.uk to urge political leaders to make those changes.