Royal Central - Prince Ricardo De La Cerda
Keith Jones, from the Cambridge News
The Princess of Wales has sent a message marking Children’s Hospice Week, praising how these carers “help families and allow children to be children.”
In a letter from Kensington Palace, Catherine writes that children’s hospices “work tirelessly to provide life-changing care to families with the aim of making unbelievably difficult situations that little bit easier” and that she has been “privileged to see first-hand” all the ways they work to help families and children.
Catherine adds: “During Children’s Hospice Week, all hospices will be doing what they do day in day out—delivering vital specialist care, and whether that is by helping to facilitate a day at the beach for children to feel the sand between their toes, engaging young people in therapeutic music activities, or having a fun painting session to create special moments and memories….”
In her letter, she adds that there are over 99,000 seriously ill children in the United Kingdom, and Catherine writes directly to hospice carers in her letter, thanking them for the hard work and difficult days. “You are a shining light to so many families in their darkest times, and your efforts do not go unnoticed.”
EACH has said, “Children’s Hospice Week celebrates children’s hospice and palliative care services across the UK and the seriously ill children and young people they support.”
The royal has been patron of the East Anglia Children’s Hospices, or EACH, since 2012, one of her earliest patronages, and has continued to work with the organisation over the last decade to spotlight the work hospices do for families and children.
EACH has said: “The continued support from Her Royal Highness makes an incredible difference to our work with children, young people and their families across East Anglia and continues to raise the profile of children’s hospice services regionally, nationally and across the world.”
Children’s Hospice Week runs from 19-25 June.