Here are more photos of the Princess of Wales’s surprise visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital today. I’ll give Kate some credit here – the post-Christmas/birthday conversation about her was that she would only show up for a handful of events this year, and this is what happens when you set the bar in hell – people are pleasantly surprised when they unexpectedly see her out and about, looking normal and put-together. Obviously, that’s not the line being used by the British media. To them, Kate’s event was the most special, impactful and meaningful thing to ever happen. Finally, at long last, they can say that Kate received treatment at this hospital for months and no one knew and no one reported it before now.

The Princess of Wales has revealed her chemotherapy struggles and the invaluable advice that helped her through ‘tough’ times. She made a deeply emotional visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London this morning, where it can now be revealed she has been undergoing her own cancer treatment. On her first major solo engagement in more than a year, Catherine, 43, met with patients to show her support and personally thank staff for their ‘exceptional care, support and compassion’ over the past 12 months.

‘It’s really tough,’ she empathised with one patient who was having chemotherapy. ‘It’s such a shock. Everyone said to me please keep a positive mindset, it makes such a difference,’ she said, adding that ‘When I came in everyone said make sure you have all your warm things [clothes] on’ because of the side effects.’

The Princess asked patient’s details of their treatment, trials, wellbeing, and asked after their families. ‘Oh my goodness,’ she exclaimed on occasion, hearing difficult accounts of long treatment, and shook her head sympathetically. Of the importance of looking after oneself during and after treatment, she said: ‘I really felt like I needed to get the sun. You need loads of water and loads of sunlight.’

When one woman’s machinery started beeping during their conversation, signalling treatment was needed, she said: ‘I recognise that beep!’ Hearing about one man’s diagnosis, the Princess said: ‘The body is amazing at telling us ‘you need to take time out’.’

Ruth Bosworth, whose husband Richard was having treatment, told the Princess she had ‘managed the children [George, Charlotte and Louis] so well’, making her smile warmly. ‘Oh, that’s kind,’ she replied. A number of the patients opened the conversation by asking how the Princess was feeling. She replied that she was doing well, but recalled the cycle of treatment saying ‘sometimes you feel relatively well, and then you have another one. Sometimes from the outside we all think you’ve finished treatment and you go back to things. But it’s hard to get back to normal,’ she said.

[From The Daily Mail]

I have a lot of thoughts about this but I’m not going to share them. All I’ll say is that it’s perfectly possible that Kate is being 100% authentic here. But it also feels like she’s going out of her way to “prove” that her medical situation was just as she described last year. Still, as I said, it’s nice to see Kate out and about… the day before Meghan’s Netflix show was originally supposed to be released. And just days after Meghan and Harry were seen volunteering in California.

One more thing – this visit wasn’t just for Kate to thank hospital staff and talk to patients. She and William are now the royal patrons of Royal Marsden Hospital. Princess Diana was previously patron of the hospital, so of course the Mail has a piece about how Kate is emulating her mother-in-law.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.