The Princess of Wales, whose own cancer is in remission, bonded with widow Maureen Gilmour, 86, who helps at the Charing Cross Hospital chemotherapy day unit
The Princess of Wales shared a touching moment with an elderly volunteer who lost her husband to cancer during an unexpected hospital visit.
Kate Middleton, whose own cancer is in remission, made a surprise visit to meet NHS staff and volunteers with Prince William. She bonded with widow Maureen Gilmour, 86, who helps each week at a chemotherapy day unit.
The volunteer at Charing Cross Hospital, west London, told the couple, in reference to patients and visitors, how people sit there for hours — with Kate replying: “I know.” The Royal then touched her husband’s shoulder, adding: “You know”. The couple’s visit, a show of support for the NHS, came a day before Kate turns 44 on Friday.
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And next week marks the first anniversary of the princess’s announcement last year that she was in remission from cancer. Meanwhile, King Charles last month shared “good news” over his own cancer – saying his treatment could be reduced this year.
Kate and William met volunteers from Imperial Health Charity, who help improve care for patients and take pressure off the wider workforce. Speaking afterwards at the hospital, Mrs Gilmour told the Mirror: “Everybody kept saying there’s a VIP coming and I thought, oh God, it’s going to be a popstar and I won’t know who it is.
“So it was a relief when they came in and I thought, I know who that is. And they were charming, they were absolutely charming, relaxed and easy and they just talked to all the volunteers who were there.”
Mrs Gilmour, a former ballet dancer, told the couple she helped in the chemo unit. “When I said they [the patients] do spend an awful lot of time sitting about waiting, the princess laughed and she went, ‘I know about that’, because I’m sure she does.”
Speaking of her admiration for Kate, Mrs Gilmour – who has volunteered at the hospital for three years, part of which has been in the chemo unit – added: “I think she is fantastic because she’s got on with her job and doing it beautifully.”
Opening up to the Mirror, Mrs Gilmour – who has three children and one grandchild – told how her third husband, Sandy, died about 17 years ago aged 76. She said: “My late husband had bone marrow cancer but I was not involved at all with the hospital at that time in any way because then I was working for a fashion company, that was my other career… I was doing that while he was going through all his chemotherapy.”
He ended up passing away, she said. “He never talked about… his own illness, ever,” Mrs Gilmour explained. “I couldn’t get him to talk about it.” She added: “But I see it in the patients, they don’t talk about what they’re going through, almost ever.”
The volunteer – who lives near the hospital where she gives out coffee, tea and sandwiches, as well as providing company to patients – continued: “But they are so positive, they don’t dwell on it, that’s the thing, and that’s for nearly all of them. One or two are feeling so ghastly… they’re sitting and don’t want to talk, that’s fine. But the ones who are sitting chatting, they don’t want to talk about the illness, they want to talk about something else. Which is why, I think, part of me is… diversion.”
She said she is “somebody to talk at, or to”, adding: “I enjoy meeting different people.” Mrs Gilmour described it as a “two-way situation”, explaining: “I get as much out of it, I hope, as they do because I learn things about other people and where they come from and what they’re doing.”
Asked about whether she thinks about her late husband when carrying out her work, she said: “Yes, I sort of thing, gosh, he was going through all this when I wasn’t with him. And a lot of these patients don’t have people with them… because they’re not keen on family jamming up the works and sitting about and getting in the way, so they sit on their own pretty well. And nurses are very busy, they really are, they go like the clappers and they are amazing. And they don’t have time to actually just sit and chat and all of that.”
Intensive care consultant David O’Callaghan said: “It’s lovely to know that the work that you’ve done is valued by the Royal family and then, obviously, the fact that they are people that have some degree of experience dealing with difficult issues it also resonates with the staff when they’re talking about psychological support for patients.”
Kate was last seen on Christmas Day when she joined William and children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and the rest of the royal family, on their traditional walk to church at Sandringham in Norfolk. William and Kate are joint patrons of NHS Charities Together, and the Palace said the engagement took place to “acknowledge the incredible work of NHS staff over a difficult winter period”.
The couple surprised healthcare staff, gathered in a break room paid for by Imperial Health Charity, a member of the umbrella organisation NHS Charities Together. NHS Charities Together CEO Ellie Orton said: “It was wonderful to see the surprise on the faces of the healthcare staff and volunteers who were honoured to speak with The Prince and Princess – special moments like these give people a genuine boost at a very challenging time.”
