It’s the future Queen’s return to the public and never has remission from cancer been more welcome in the UK. Even before Christmas, Prince William’s wife had met her subjects during a religious function in Westminster Abbey, organized by her, like every year, and dedicated to those throughout the country who are committed to serving others with ” empathy, kindness and affection”. This time, however, the official release saw her alone, unaccompanied by her husband or any other member of the royal family, to return to the place where her exit from the tunnel of the fight against the cancer that she was diagnosed with a year ago began.
And for the first time, after months of secrecy, the public has discovered where the princess has had her chemotherapy since the end of last February. In the famous London hospital of “Royal Marsden”specializing in cancer treatments, into which Kate, for months, entered secretly, using reserved side entrances, and not letting anyone see her.
«It’s really new for me to enter through the main door!», joked the princess, very elegant, as always, in a long coat of dark brown plaid fabric and a burgundy dress with a high neck.
Proving, once again, an openness, compassion and empathy unusual among the Windsorswho remember her mother-in-law Diana, during her visit Kate hugged the patients and their relatives, asking them to tell their stories, and sharing private details of her own journey with them.
«It must be very reassuring to be in a ward together with others», the princess told the English press, «I had to protect my privacy, with a private room, but everyone encouraged me not to withdraw into myself and to maintain a positive attitude.” Then speaking with Katherine Field, 45, who is undergoing a course of preventive chemotherapysimilar to the one faced by herself, the princess pointed to her arm and chest where the venous catheter, made up of a cannula, through which the chemotherapy drugs were administered was located.
“I was so attached to that device that gave me security that I didn’t want it to be removed,” Kate explained.
The princess also hugged Tina Adumou while the woman told her, crying, how her nineteen-year-old daughter is in intensive care and is fighting for his life. “She is in an excellent hospital,” Kate reassured her, “I wish I could do more for her but I assure you there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
The princess also embraced, warmly, Rebecca Mendlesohn, 57 years old, breast cancer patient and liver, and spoke about how it is very important to “continue with the activities that give you happiness, even during treatment”. «Personally I felt a great need for sun and water, just like a plant», explained Kate who also spoke about how difficult it is to face the diagnosis, making the right choices, and returning to normality. «It is the uncertainty that is so difficult to deal with when, for the first time, they explain to you that you have a tumor», said Prince William’s wife, «And also to understand well all the information they give you. Having people who support you every day, in hospital and at home, is very important. Then, when the treatments are finished, it is not easy to resume everyday life. You try to speak but the words don’t come. However, you learn to appreciate many little things that, before the illness, you took for granted.”
It has always been said of the late Queen Elizabeth II that, by speaking to a person for just a few minutes, she was capable of making her feel at the center of the world and the same ability seems to have been demonstrated by Kate at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
“It made me feel like I was the only person in the room,” said Peter Burton, 60, a retired headteacher from south London, who suffers from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, “It was a really special moment. I felt that he understood well what I am going through and had real sympathy for me.”
