Kate Middleton made a rare comment about her cancer battle while meeting members of the public on Christmas Day.
The Princess of Wales, 42, stopped to speak with well-wishers gathered in Sandringham on Wednesday hoping to greet members of the royal family as they walked to and from a Christmas morning service at St. Mary Magdalene church.
One of those she spoke with was Rachel Anvil, 24, a worker at Cambridge’s Royal Papworth Hospital, part of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), who began her career in a cancer unit.
Princess Kate, who spent much of 2024 battling an undisclosed form of cancer, shared her gratitude toward healthcare professionals for doing the “hard work” by helping cancer patients as they fight the disease.
“I started my career in the Macmillan cancer unit, and I just wanted to say, you’re an inspiration to all the patients,” Rachel told Kate in a video Anvil’s mother, Karen, posted on Instagram.
“Thank you, honestly,” the princess replied, visibly moved. “The amount of people who have written this year is extraordinary and I think cancer just really does resonate with so many families.”
Rachel added that “having someone so influential actually share their story” was meaningful to many.
Catherine, as she is officially known, praised the young woman and other cancer workers, saying, “People like you are doing all the hard work out there.”
“I’m hugely grateful,” she added.
“We’re all behind you, never forget that,” Rachel’s mom told the princess.
Kate seemed to take the message to heart as she smiled and thanked the mother and daughter for their “kind” words.
Rachel was effusive about the princess after their meeting.
“I didn’t go expecting to have such a lovely opportunity,” the healthcare worker told The Post on Thursday, explaining that she wanted to say something about how much the princess has meant to cancer sufferers, “especially after the year she had.”
“I feel very lucky. It was a lovely high.”
Rachel’s experience with cancer is both personal and professional.
“I saw what a cancer journey was like first hand. My great grandmother passed away from lung cancer,” she said, revealing that she was able to provide her great-grandmother with “final care” because of her experience in the NHS.
“My heart belongs to the NHS and healthcare,” she went on.
Rachel praised the princess for helping cancer patients deal with one of the less-discussed symptoms of the illness: loneliness.
“The thing that it gives to people is it makes them feel less alone,” she said of Kate sharing her cancer story.
“The general consensus is she is really brave and has done an incredible thing.”
“She’s so humble,” Rachel shared. “I really did want to take the opportunity to say you’re so brave. But she still took the opportunity to say, ‘You know what? I’m so grateful that I got care from people like you.”
The memory of meeting Kate is one Rachel said she will cherish.
“Getting that opportunity — I shook hands with the future queen of England and got to tell her what a wonderful job she’s doing,” she told The Post. “How many people get to do that? I will never forget it. It was such a buzz.”
Another member of the public who has experience with cancer also spoke to the princess on Wednesday.
Karen Maclean, a 73-year-old retiree from North Lincolnshire, spoke to both Kate and King Charles III, who, like the royal’s daughter-in-law, was diagnosed with cancer this year. Maclean even managed to hug Kate.
“We just had a little talk about cancer, really,” Maclean told Daily Mail.
“I’ve met the King before. He said to me ‘I can remember you’, I’m thinking, ‘What?! like many years ago?’”
Maclean also said that the royals seemed “very well actually, considering what they’re going through.”
Of hugging the princess, the woman said, “What a privilege.”
The mother of three shared her cancer diagnosis with the world in March. In September, she announced that she is “cancer-free.”
King Charles, however, is continuing his cancer treatment, which is expected to extend into the new year.
