The Prince of Wales and Prime Minister Gordon Brown are to join more than 100 celebrities including JK Rowling and Ewan McGregor to honour some of the country's unsung heroes.
Winners at the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards will include an air stewardess who battled to save a 1lb premature baby at 30,000ft, and Britain's oldest man, who still visits schools at the age of 111.
A doorkeeper and female security guard who tackled Loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone at Stormont, Northern Ireland, when he burst into the parliament building will also be recognised. And four heroes of the attempted Glasgow Airport bombing will receive awards for outstanding bravery.
Peter Kay, Westlife, the Sugababes, Ant and Dec, Stephen Fry, Kelly Brook, Dame Shirley Bassey, Jamie Oliver and Little Britain's Matt Lucas and David Walliams will be on hand to salute the winners.
Other participants include top sportsmen Lewis Hamilton, Wayne Rooney and Colin Montgomerie, TV stars Gary Lineker, Davina McCall and Richard Hammond, and a deluge of the nation's soap favourites.
The awards, which take place on Tuesday night in London's West End, will be broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday on ITV1.
Among the children honoured for their courage is a teenager who wrote an A-Z guide to help youngsters cope with cancer, and a 12-year-old boy who saved his family from an attacker armed with a meat cleaver.
The recipients were chosen from thousands of nominations by a panel of judges including Gordon Brown's wife Sarah, Simon Cowell, GMTV's Fiona Phillips, British Medical Association chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum, ITN anchorman Mark Austin and Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Michael Todd.
Host Carol Vorderman said: "It's a great chance to show there are amazing people in this country doing brilliant things which just take your breath away. And it's a chance for everyone to celebrate what a great country we are."
Prince Charles said: "These remarkable awards remind us of the compassion, decency and courage which still exists in every corner of the land."
