Kate commends staff and 'awe-inspiring' families at official hospice unveiling in Norfolk

The Duchess of Cambridge commended caregivers and families at the official unveiling of a hospice today.

Kate opened The Nook on Friday, five years after officially launching a £10million fundraising appeal for the hospice, which is run by East Anglia Children's Hospices (EACH).

She spent the afternoon in Framingham Earl, Norfolk, meeting some of the families who benefit from the many services it offers, including those with very sick children and others whose children have died, asking about the care they receive.

The Duchess was reunited with Leigh Smith, 38, who moved her to tears when they met in 2014, just months after Ms Smith had lost her three-month-old daughter Beatrice to a rare heart condition.

Ms Smith said after their private meeting: “She told me, ‘I don’t know how you did that, how you got through it.

“It was really lovely to see her again and she gave me a big hug.

“She asked me if I felt that what we had gone through was still a difficult subject to discuss, in the wider community and I told her that yes, death is still a big taboo, especially children’s death.

“But I told her how important her role has been in breaking down that taboo, and mental health generally, normalising it and making it easier to talk about such things.

“She batted it off of course. She’s very down to earth and lovely."

The Duchess had a brief tour of The Nook before meeting some of the families in the communal space that is used for children to play and integrate and parents to chat.

She told Betsy Fletcher, whose brother Toby, 10, has dystonic cerebral palsy and other complex medical needs: “I love your plaits. My daughter Charlotte loves plaits too but her hair is only this long so we have to do them up at the side.”

The Duchess also met Julie and Kevin Pitcher, whose six-year-old son Benny was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in February.

Mr Pitcher, 44, from East Runton, said: “We told her how our lives had been turned upside down but you battle through.

“She said that as a parent, she could not imagine having to go through that.”

The Duchess remembered meeting Keira Leggett in October 2015 and laughed when she was shown a picture of them together at the event.

Keira’s sister Ava, two, died in August 2014. The Duchess told her: “It was funny wasn’t it, because we had to do that welly throwing.”

She asked Keira how she was getting on at school and whether it was hard to chat about what she had been through with her peers.

When Keira told her she had been having a hard time and had been bullied, the Duchess told her: “Be strong in yourself. Look after yourself, they don’t know what you have been through.”

She added: “I’m so sorry about your sister. I’m in awe of how strong you are.”

The Duchess has been patron of EACH since 2012, when she opened its first hospice in Ipswich and delivered her first public speech since marrying Prince William the previous April.

EACH supports families and cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, providing care wherever the family wishes; in homes, hospital or at one of their hospices in Ipswich, Milton and Framingham Earl.

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