Pair want donations to good causes not presents

PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle have asked for charity donations rather than gifts when they marry next month.

The seven good causes they have chosen range from homelessness to women’s empowerment and HIV.

Kensington Palace said the couple picked organisations which reflected their shared values. Among them is Scotty’s Little Soldiers, a military charity which supports children who have lost a parent serving in the armed forces.

Mum-of-two Nikki Scott, 28, founded it after her husband Cpl Lee Scott died in Afghanistan in 2009.

Nikki, of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, said: “To have been personally chosen by them is an incredible honour.”

She said of Harry, an Afghanistan veteran: “I know the armed forces and looking after children our heroes have left behind is close to his heart.”

Meghan has a personal connection to another of the charities chosen.

Last year she visited the Myna Mahila Foundation, which supports working women in Mumbai’s slums.

They also named Chiva, the Children’s HIV Association, a charity evocative of the work Harry’s mother Princess Diana did to destigmatise the disease. Chairwoman Dr Amanda Williams said: “We are a very small charity. All donations make a significant difference.”

Meghan and Harry picked StreetGames, which uses sport to help young people change their lives, marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage, homelessness charity Crisis, and the Wilderness Foundation UK.