Parts from an article from today's Independent:
Glamour and charity: What's an It Girl to do?
They have it all: wealth, looks, youth and hordes of A-list friends. All they need is something to do. In the past, the children of the super-wealthy would squander their inheritances on an idle life of jet-set partying. Now, increasingly, today's crop of heirs, and particularly heiresses, are devoting their lives to charity.
Camilla Fayed, 23, has just taken over her family's charity work and this week hosts her first charity event, to raise money for children with rare genetic disorders.
Camilla Fayed, the daughter of Mohamed al-Fayed, decided to devote her life to charity work after a friend's six-day-old baby died at the Evelina Children's Hospital, part of the Guy's and St Thomas's NHS Trust in London.
"I don't want to be in a glossy magazine for doing nothing any more," she says. "If I appear in a magazine, then I want it to be for something I have done. Charity work is not a job for me. It's something I have been born into."
Ms Fayed's fundraising event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge is a result of her friend's tragedy. Natasha Clarke, a former Vogue model, watched her six-day-old daughter, Eva, die from a rare disorder called methylmalonic acidaemia, which meant her body was unable to break down protein, including her mother's milk.
"When Natasha told me her story over lunch, I was in tears," Ms Fayed adds. "I already do charity work for the Evelina Children's Hospital, but this was a lot more personal. Slowly, year by year, I am taking on more responsibility in my father's charity work. I want to be hands-on and be personal, not just sending a cheque once a year."