Experiencing cancer is “life-changing” for both patients and their loved ones, the Princess of Wales said during a visit to a hospital in Essex.
Kate, wearing a brown blazer and brown trousers, said the recovery journey from cancer is a “rollercoaster” as she discussed treatment and the importance of holistic cancer care with patients, volunteers and staff at Colchester Hospital’s Wellbeing Centre on Wednesday.
The princess, who revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer in March last year, praised the centre’s “holistic” approach to the support it offers patients, relatives and carers which includes counselling and dietary advice.
While chatting to a group of the centre’s users, volunteers and staff, the princess said: “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment, treatment’s done, then it’s like ’I can crack on, get back to normal’ but actually the phase afterwards is really, you know, difficult you’re not necessarily under the clinical team any longer but you’re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to and actually someone to help talk you through that, show you and guide you through that sort of phase that comes after treatment I think is really valuable.”
She said: “It’s life changing for anyone, through first diagnosis or post-treatment and things like that, it is life changing experience both for the individual patient but also for the families as well and actually it sometimes goes unrecognised, you don’t necessarily, particularly when it’s the first time, you don’t appreciate how much impact it is going to have.
“You have to find your new normal and that takes time.
“Someone described the sort of healing, recovery journey to me as being like a sort of zig-zag.
“It’s a rollercoaster, it’s not one smooth plain, which you expect it to be, but the reality is it’s not, you go through hard times and to have a place like this, to have the support network, whether its through creativity and singing or gardening, whatever it might be, is so valuable and it’s great that this community has it.
“It would be great if lots of communities had this kind of support.”
She added: “There is this whole phase when you finish your treatment that you, yourself, everybody expects you, right you’ve finished your time, go, you’re better, and that’s not the case at all.”
After visiting the centre, the princess braved the drizzly weather to plant several coral-pink Catherine’s Rose plants in the hospital’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wellbeing Garden.
The RHS named the flower after Kate to raise awareness of the role that spending time outdoors plays in supporting people’s mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing.
Foregoing gardening gloves which were offered to her, she knelt down to plant the roses using her bare hands and a trowel to pat down the soil alongside Adam Frost, the award-winning garden designer who led the design of the space.
Opened in July last year, the wellbeing garden at the hospital offers a relaxing and restorative space for NHS staff, patients and visitors.
Funds from the sale of Catherine’s Rose, bred by Harkness Roses, will go to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity to help the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust establish a training programme for clinical teams across the country to help patients who need intensive support live well with and after cancer.
The princess revealed in January she was in remission from cancer after making an emotional return to the specialist cancer institution, the Royal Marsden Hospital in Chelsea, London, where she was treated.
Some 500 rose plants are being donated by Harkness Roses and Kensington Palace to wellbeing and community gardens across the UK this summer.
In June, the princess was said to have been disappointed as she missed Royal Ascot for the second successive year as she sought the right balance following her treatment.
