Sarah, Duchess of York and her daughter Princess Eugenie have made an emotional visit to the Teenage Cancer Trust-funded facility at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Princess Beatrice, 29 — the duchess’s oldest child and Eugenie’s sister — was sadly unable to attend the special event as she is currently in America.
As honorary patrons of the trust, the mother-daughter duo were on site to celebrate the unit’s second birthday.
The Duchess said: “I think it was really important in order that the girls understand what all of you young people go through and how we can help.”
“I think it’s so important to come here and learn,” Eugenie, 27, added. “To come and experience that from as a teenager, when I was 18, but also to hear all the amazing things these units have done for teenagers and for the way you have outlook on your diagnoses.”
Indeed, the princesses both visited teenage cancer units on their 18th birthdays.
During the event, the pair spent their time speaking with a handful of patients who had been undergoing treatment for various types of cancer.
During the event, the mother and daughter spent time speaking with patients and their parents.
Sarah opened the Teenage Cancer Trust’s first specialist cancer unit in 1990.
Sarah, 57, who opened the Teenage Cancer Trust’s first specialist cancer unit in 1990 and has since attended almost all of the charity’s new unit openings, also delivered an impassioned speech.
“Young adults, or sufferers from teenage cancer, it was you all who taught me so much,” she said as she addressed both patients and their parents. “You taught me forgiveness, you taught me kindness, you taught me never to give up, courage in facing adversity.”
Director of fundraising and marketing at Teenage Cancer Trust, Kate Collins, was quick to thank the royals for their efforts.
“It was a pleasure seeing our honorary patrons bring so much fun and positivity to the young people they met today, helping us celebrate the incredible support provided at this unit,” she said.
The Duchess looked at ease as she chatted happily with those at the engagement.
Sarah, who was once cruelly dubbed ‘The Duchess of Pork,’ recently revealed that she once wished she suffered from bulimia,.
She made the surprising admission in a podcast interview with Dr Vijay Murthy — an ayurvedic doctor and naturopath.
“To wish you could have a mental illness to that level is a very serious place to get to,” she said.
“I was a binge-eater. I never could get bulimia because I just didn’t have that mental state to go that far, but I always wished I could.”
Sarah said that she wanted to be as “beautiful and thin” as her then sister-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales.
The pair were believed to be great friends.
“But that just shows you how dangerous and what place I got to. To wish you could have a mental illness to that level is a very serious place to get to.”
She added: “My body and mind was in that place, but I couldn’t actually act out to make myself sick. I then grew and grew and grew.”
Sarah, Prince Andrew’s former wife, confessed that much of her motivation came from wanting to be as “beautiful and thin” as her then sister-in-law, Diana, Princess of Wales. Of course, the beloved royal is believed to have suffered from bulimia nervosa.
“I tried, but of course it never went that way,” she said.
The Duchess, who spoke largely of her amazing recovery during the interview, said she hoped to be a “human bridge” for others who suffer from eating disorders.
