The Princess of Wales has said nature has been her sanctuary over the last year in which she underwent preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
In a video posted on X, which featured footage of her and her husband Prince William, as well as images of the British landscape, Kate spoke of the importance to her of the natural world.
"Over the past year, nature has been my sanctuary," she said on the video released to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.
"The natural world's capacity to inspire us, to nurture us and help us heal and grow is boundless and has been understood for generations."
SPRING.
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) May 12, 2025
This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, we are celebrating humanity’s longstanding connection to nature, and its capacity to inspire us and help us to heal and grow in mind, body and spirit.
As we confront the challenges of an increasingly complex and digital world,… pic.twitter.com/lmxzxJUsiO
The natural world has played an important role in Kate's cancer journey, offering her solace with the royal said to have walked and swam outdoors during and after her treatment for the disease.
It was almost a year ago when Kate, 43, made the dramatic announcement that she would undergo a course of chemotherapy after tests taken following major abdominal surgery in January last year revealed that an unspecified form of cancer had been present.
She completed the course of treatment in September, and said earlier this year she was now in remission.
Last month, Kate and William visited a picturesque Scottish island to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary, with footage of that visit featuring in her video.
"Spring is a season of rebirth, of hope and new beginnings from the dark days of winter, the outside world quietly awakens with new life, and there comes a sense of optimism, anticipation and positive, hopeful change," she said.
"Just as nature revives and renews, so too can we. Let us reconnect nature and celebrate a new dawn within our hearts."
Kate has also spoken about the importance of children spending time in nature and in 2019 she co-created a wilderness "Back to Nature" garden for the Chelsea Flower Show, where her children paddled in the stream and had a go on the rope swing as did the princess.
She said in her latest video, that is the first in a series of social media videos celebrating the seasons,: "It is often from the smallest of seeds that the greatest change can happen, and in this ever-growing complex world, we need to hold on to what connects us all."
In a message alongside the video the princess says the "connection between humanity and nature" is even more important as people deal with an "increasingly complex and digital world."
