This week, Kate Middleton shared how many people sympathized with cancer, while also making a rare comment about her battle with the disease over the past year.
“The number of people writing letters this year has been extraordinary and I think cancer really resonates with so many families,” the Princess of Wales told a health worker. She spoke to the public at Sandringham after the royal family left a church service on Christmas Day .
According to the New York Post, the health care worker who spoke to the princess, identified as Rachel Anvil of the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, called Kate an “inspiration” to cancer patients for the way she fought her own cancer.
Anvil noted that she began her career in an oncology unit and added that having someone “with such influence” share her struggles will help others battling the disease.
According to the Post, Kate protested in a video of Anvil’s mother’s exchange posted on Instagram: “People like you are doing all the hard work out there.”
The princess added that she was “extremely grateful” for the work people like Anvil did for patients.
“We all support you, never forget that,” another person, identified by the Post as Anvil’s mother, told the princess — who thanked her.
The 42-year-old duchess announced she was diagnosed with cancer in March, two months after she underwent planned abdominal surgery in January.
She returned for her first public event since Christmas Day 2023 in June with the Trooping the Colour parade.
In September, Kate announced she had completed her preventative chemotherapy, although she said her road to full recovery would be long and she would have to take it day by day.
She added that she would take part in a limited number of engagements until the end of the year, including the second annual “Together at Christmas” concert at Westminster Abbey earlier this month.
The princess was joined by her husband Prince William, their three children Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six, and her parents-in-law King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Christmas Day.
Earlier this year, Charles announced that he had also been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment.
