In the week that Prince William turned 39, with William busy watching the Euro 2021 football games, Kate was keeping her eyes on her work. In her role as Royal Patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice or EACH, a role she has had since 2012, Kate wrote a letter to kick start what is Children’s Hospice Week.

In her letter Kate thanked all of the UK’s 54 children’s hospices and what she called their incredible staff and the life-changing care that these hospices provides. 

Kate wrote of how the last year has been a difficult one for everyone, and especially tough and frightening for families with seriously ill children. Kate reminded us that many families started shielding long before others, worrying about the pandemic and what it might mean for their child.

Kate described children’s hospices as a lifeline, saying that she has been privileged to see first-hand the remarkable work they do. 

EACH runs hospices across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. They first started operating in 1989.

Children’s hospices as with other non-profit organizations have been hit hard by the effects of the pandemic. East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice report that over the last year,  their fundraising events were cancelled and the ability of community and corporate supporters to raise money severely impacted. They say their 43 shops, which raise vital income, had to close for 30 weeks.

Phil Gormley, EACH's Chief Executive, said: "He was extremely grateful to The Duchess for her active support and advocacy,  which is deeply appreciated and valued by both our families and staff."

A look at the EACH website shows exactly how active Kate has been in supporting them during her patronage.  This was one Kate’s first Royal patronages and no doubt this organization holds a special meaning for her. 

Kate was not alone in sending out her thoughts to parents of children using hospice services across the UK. The Duchess of Cornwall also posted her own note to recognize the important service that these organizations provide. 

Camilla said she wanted to send a message to all the families across the country who are caring for terminally ill babies, children and young people. Saying that she recognizes the enormous 'heart-breaking challenges’ they face, adding you are much in my thoughts and prayers

Keep listening in for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and you can reach me by email at [email protected]

After sending out teasers all week, at midnight UK time on June 17th 2021 Kate’s BIG news was officially released stating that hers and William’s foundation had launched The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood with the aim to drive awareness of and action on the impact of the early years.

The centre will focus on three key areas: research; developing new solutions with public and private voluntary sectors; and campaigns to raise awareness. 

The project already has its own  website https://centreforearlychildhood.org/ that Kate will use to showcase major initiatives, highlight its research, and act as a platform for those who want to find out more about the impact of early childhood.

A palace official has reportedly said "that the vision that the Duchess has is for a happier, healthier and more nurturing world,” 

To coincide with the launch of Kate’s new project  The Centre for Early Childhood published its inaugural report, Big Change Starts Small, including in it the results of the leading research in this area. Kate has written the forward to this report.

This area of research is not new. Academics and researchers have been looking at early childhood development for decades.

• The Abecedarian Project represented a revolutionary approach in early childhood education started in the 1970’s exposing children living in North Carolina to a high-quality child-care setting from birth through school entry, checking back to see how the children were doing at ages 5, 5, 8, 12, 15, 21, and 30. 
• The long-term Dunedin Study in New Zealand has been studying a group of children since the early 70’s and find that those in the study group who had higher levels of self-control as young children have fared better as adults. 

Even having the benefit of this research, according to publications on the Brookings Institution website, in 2007 UK medical journal The Lancet reported that more than 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world were at risk of not reaching their full development potential,  because of suffering from the negative consequences of poverty, nutritional deficiencies and inadequate learning opportunities.

Kate speaks in her report of 1/3 of all children in England right now, who are under the age of 3,  already lagging behind their peers.

There is clearly a cost element involved in providing a full range of early years services including ensuring that children don’t grow up in poverty. As Kate said, she has learned through her discussions with experts and the public alike,  that investing the funds on children prior to them starting school will actually save countries money over the longer term.

Kate’s interest in this area certainly won’t do any harm. We know that when Royals take an interest in a particular social issue, it captivates public attention, really bringing the issue to the fore and generating discussions and comments.  As a much admired Royal and a mother, Kate’s campaign to raise public awareness on this issue will likely be very successful.

Keep listening in for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and you can reach me by email at [email protected]

The Royals, like the rest of us, are keen to escape lockdown with Kate finally able to complete a visit to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, an engagement that has been cancelled on three previous occasions because of COVID.  Kate’s visit took in the Raphael Cartoons and an exhibition about the children’s story Alice in Wonderland.

Called - Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser,  the exhibit has about 300 objects showing the history from the book’s creation over 158 years ago and showing us how the Lewis Carroll story has been variously interpreted in film, fashion, sculpture, music, photography and other art forms.

The exhibition includes the V&A's  first Virtual Reality experience of what it might be like to go down the Rabbit Hole and into the world that Lewis Carroll wrote about,  as seen through Alice’s eyes.  The exhibition is scheduled to run at the V & A from May 22 to December 31, 2021.

Yahoo reports that the Alice exhibition has a special link to Kate's university days. Kate reportedly wrote her dissertation on the photography of Lewis Carroll when she was an Art History student at St Andrews in Scotland.

Kate said of her visit to the V and A "I think people have been craving beauty and inspiration. It’s going to be a good time to visit museums and galleries as they are not full of tourists coming in." I am sure Kate is already planning a secret little return visit for her and her children. 

William and Kate also released a press statement to announce that William, in his role as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, would be spending a week in Scotland starting May 21st, with Kate joining him for the back end of the week. 

We are told that their visit will see them in the Orkney Islands and in Edinburgh and Fife. 

As well as his ceremonial duties in his role as Lord High Commissioner, William and Kate will be hosting several events over the week, with, they say, the aim of  ‘thanking individuals that have gone above and beyond to support their communities over the last year, including workers for the NHS, other frontline workers, emergency responders, volunteers and the Military.'

William will host some emergency first responders to watch the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park , Glasgow, and he and Kate will host National Health Service staff at a drive-in cinema at the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh.

Kate and William are also scheduled to visit some environmentally friendly projects, which frankly sound like a chance to have some fun, including visiting a E-racing circuit and having a go at land yachting.

The couple will also revisit their past and return to St. Andrews University in Fife on Scotland’s East coast, where they both studied for their degrees. Kate and William will meet with current students and hear how they have coped in their studies during the pandemic.

Their press release stated that both William and Kate are very much looking forward to spending time in Scotland, and hearing from a wide range of people on the issues that they care about.  And for those of us still stuck at home, we are very much looking forward to seeing all the photos and videos of their visit.

Keep listening in for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. You can reach out to me by twitter Jeanette Songolo @kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle (@JeanetteSongolo) / Twitter or by email at [email protected]

In his role as President of the UK Football Association Prince William and Kate are joining the entire football community and other UK sportsmen and women in a social media boycott this weekend.  Why is there a social media boycott and what is the aim of this particular campaign? 

The focus of this weekend’s initiative is narrow in that its aim is to show solidarity against racism being experienced by football players - predominantly in the UK football Premier League.

The move is a bid to ramp up pressure on all social media platforms to act against online hate and abuse after a spate of recent incidents that has seen male and female football players bombarded with on-line message of hate based on their race. 

Whilst the social media blackout is being driven by UK football teams, players of other sports have come out in support and are joining in the campaign, notably Formula 1 racing champ Sir Lewis Hamilton and 11 other F1 drivers.

European football governing body UEFA is also taking part, as well as Scottish and Irish football, England Rugby, Scottish Rugby, British Cycling, the Rugby Football League, British Horseracing, the England and Wales Cricket Board, the British Lawn Tennis Association (of which Kate is Patron),  the  International Tennis Federation,  and others.

Racism in football in UK and other sports around the World is not a new issue but by all accounts, it has gotten worse over the last year and a half.  Manchester United says it has seen a 350% increase in abuse towards its players online in the past 18 months. The club says the comments peaked in January 2021, where more than 400 posts abusing players were recorded, 86% of which they said were racist. 

The football anti-discrimination charity Kick it Out, that was established in 1993, are also involved. Kick it Out’s chairman says that the boycott signifies our collective anger. "Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse".  Kick it Out added that "by removing ourselves from the platforms, we are making a symbolic gesture to those with power. We need you to act. We need you to create change. We need social media companies to make their platforms a hostile environment for trolls rather than for the football family."

A good PR campaign and every little bit done to stop on-line hate is great. But I wonder if the focus should have been broadened. Not just stopping hate speech to sportsmen and sportswomen,  but using the power of all of these high profile and very rich sports clubs and associations to protect everyone. It sort of seems like the football clubs are protecting their own, but what about the regular man and women on the street who experience the same issues and don’t have the platform to get their voices heard. Who is speaking for them?

Twitter acknowledge that the issue is not limited to high profile sportsmen and sportswomen in saying  "racism is a deep societal and complex issue and everyone has a role to play.”

Kate and William had planned to share content online over the weekend, in the form of a photograph to mark the 6th birthday of Princess Charlotte. It is not clear whether Kate and William will still go ahead and provide a birthday photo of Charlotte to the UK newspapers to print,  or if they will simply decide to release the photo after the weekend social media boycott has ended.  We shall wait in anticipation of what is sure to be a lovely new photo of Charlotte. 

Please keep listening out for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
You can reach out to me by twitter or by email at [email protected]

In the week that Kate & Prince William celebrated their 10th Wedding Anniversary they went out and about on visits in County Durham in the North East of England. They stopped off at the Cheesy Waffles Project,   one of the charities that benefitted from donations made in lieu of wedding gifts to Kate and William’s one-million-pound Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund. 

Kate, who was a keen field hockey player when at school, burst into peels of laughter when she tried to whack a golf ball in front of the expectant crowds (and press photographers and TV cameras) only to miss.  She had better luck on her second attempt though. 

Kate went on to great the youth and young adults with elbow bumps as she and William joined in with them in making arts and crafts. 

Prior to this visit,  Kate and William had also stopped off at Manor Farm, a fifth-generation family-run mixed cattle, sheep and arable farm near Darlington, in County Durham. 

Kate and William were given a tour of the farm outside and were seen visiting the cattle, calving and lambing sheds with farm owners Clare Wise and Stewart Chapman. Clare and Stewart are parents to three children. The farmers won the Sheep Farmer of the Year award in 2018.

Kate and William were both given tractor driving lessons in separate tractors which they both thoroughly enjoyed,  before joining a discussion with local farmers who are supported by The UK National Farmers Union about their experiences of the last year, including the mental health impact of Covid-19 for farmers, and the challenges of balancing home-schooling with farm work.

Kate and William were pictured smiling and giggling throughout their visits and were clearly having fun being outside in the spring fresh air.

Happy 10th (tin) Wedding Anniversary to Kate and William!

Keep listening out for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Feel free to reach out to me by email at [email protected]

Every family has one. Not quite a black sheep but certainly a relative that my dad would say ‘has a lot of character’.  In Kate’s case this relative would be her Uncle Gary Goldsmith. Never one to shy away from speaking to the tabloids, Kate’s four times married Uncle Gary attracts controversy. 

Uncle Gary’s latest controversy came about due to an interview that he  gave to the UK Daily Mail newspaper,  ahead of William and Kate’s 10th Wedding Anniversary.

Gary was very supportive of his niece Kate and the success she has made of her role in the Royal Family. Gary admits to being obviously biased in his praise for Kate’s saying of course he is,  as he is her uncle. Telling the newspaper, I love her dearly but I genuinely think she is an exceptional person and is doing a brilliant job in the Royal Family.  And with that statement we can quite agree. 

Uncle Gary likened Kate to Prince Diana, saying “She acts like you would want a Royal to behave. She has that poise of the public servant yet she also has the common touch – or the Diana touch.”

The more controversial part of the interview was when Uncle Gary suggested that both the Queen and then Charles and Camilla should step aside sooner rather than later and let William and Kate take of the role of King and Queen. Uncle Gary said that he was a massive fan of the Queen, but that the Royal Family and the country is in an era of change,  and if her Majesty were to step aside, in his opinion William and Kate would give the whole country stability.

Uncle Gary made it clear that he thinks once the Queen’s reign has ended that ‘things need to pass to William and Kate" and bypass Charles and Camilla. Adding that Kate was born ready to be Queen.

Uncle Gary is not the only one in the UK who expressing thoughts of the throne by-passing Prince Charles and going directly to Prince William. Several Royal authors have also talked of how young people see the monarchy as archaic and out of touch, and see the need to have someone younger and more relatable on the throne.

But these sorts of discussions, right now, just weeks after the Queen has buried her husband seem insensitive and in bad taste. And talk of getting the Queen off the throne and by-passing the rightful heir – well that just treasonous talk, isn’t it?

We should be glad for Uncle Gary that freedom of speech is alive and well,  and that we are no longer living in the old days when such talk may have got you locked away in the Tower of London.  Let me know what you think.

Keep listening out for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. And feel free to reach out to me by email at  [email protected]

Kate and William stepped out for their first public engagement following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh and in doing so paid tribute to Prince Phillip. Kate and William visited with an East London branch of the UK Air Cadets. 

In December 2015 Prince Phillip passed on his Royal Patronage of the Air Cadets to Kate, ending Prince Phillip's 63 years of involvement with the organization.  At that time this was Kate’s first military linked appointment.

The 'Air Cadets' are a UK-wide cadet force with more than 40,000 members aged between 12 and 20 years, sponsored by the Royal Air Force with the aim of giving youth hands on experience of activities and courses to challenge and to develop their skills. The Air Cadets have existed for 80 years. 

Whilst the air cadets aim to encourage an interest in aviation and the Royal Air Force among young people, the skills that are provided to the youth members are useful in either the military services or in civilian life. The organization sets out to encourage the spirit of adventure and develop qualities of leadership and good citizenship and to have lots of fun.

News reports and photos from today’s visit show Kate and William chatting with the youth and hearing about their progress in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.

Kate showed her own sense of fun and adventure when she took part in an exercise in a light aircraft flight simulator, in her dress and heels. William got to hold Kate’s handbag while Kate donned a headset and showed off her flying skills. 

Keep listening out for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. You can reach out to me by email at [email protected]

In the spirit of unity to honour the passing of Prince Phillip,  I am airing this same short little episode on my Kind thoughts for Kate Middleton and Kind Thoughts for Meghan Markle podcasts. It was so good to see William and Harry stand alongside one another to show their respects to their grandfather.
 
Watch the funeral on the Royal Family You Tube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCY4b6GGkb4

Kate and William and other members of the Royal Family have cancelled some of their planned public engagements, out of respect to the late Duke of Edinburgh who passed away on April 9th. Per the Royal Family UK website, The Queen approved the UK Prime Minister’s recommendation that there will be a period of National Mourning beginning on Friday 9 April until Saturday 17 April, the day of the funeral. Additionally, it is The Queen's wish that the Royal Family will observe two weeks of Royal Mourning starting on Friday 9 April. During this period, Members of the Royal Family will continue undertaking engagements appropriate to the circumstances. Mourning bands will be worn where appropriate.

Prince William and Kate were due to take part in the annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts  awards, the BAFTAs. Prince William was appointed president of BAFTA in 2010. Prince Phillip had served as the first president of BAFTA between 1959 to 1965.

William pulled out of the event ahead of time, likely feeling that it would have been inappropriate for him to have attended so close to the announcement of the death of his grandfather. 

Prince William and Kate have now released an in-memoriam message in honour of Prince Phillip. 

William wrote about how his grandfather’s century of life was defined by service – to his Country and Commonwealth, to his wife The Queen, and to William and his family.

William spoke fondly of how Prince Phillips had guided William both through good times and the hardest days. No doubt a reference to the role played by Prince Phillip in the days immediately following the death of William and Harry’s mom Princess Diana. It was Prince Phillips who reportedly encouraged both boys to walk with him behind Diana’s funeral casket as a mark of respect.

In his statement William also expressed his gratitude to his grandfather for the kindness he showed to Kate. William said how pleased he was to have had his grandfather in his life for so many years. William talked about Phillip’s infectious sense of adventure as well as his mischievous sense of humour - something William and Kate’s kids got to enjoy. 

William ended by describing his grandfather as having been an extraordinary man and part of an extraordinary generation. Saying that he and Kate would continue to do what Phillip would have wanted, which is to support the Queen in the years ahead, and to get on with the job!

William and Kate’s message was posted on their own social media accounts and also on the Royal Family Twitter account, accompanied by a photograph showing Prince Phillip driving a horse drawn carriage. Beside Phillip is a younger Prince George, smiling away and balancing a book on his knees as he sits up on the carriage beside his great-grandfather. 

The photograph was taken by Kate. 

Keep listening out for future podcasts about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and you can reach out to me and to other listeners through the Linked In  group created for this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13962658/

Kate has come a long way since her marriage to Prince William. April 29th 2021 will mark their 10th (Tin) wedding anniversary. Residents in the UK just got to see a new ITV documentary affectionately called "The Day Will and Kate Got Married" which aired background information about Kate and William’s courtship, scenes from the wedding itself, and conversations with people who got to play a part in Kate and William’s big day.

I took my own walk down memory lane and re-watched the interview that Kate and William gave after their engagement in October 2010. It is interesting to watch the interview and to see how Kate was back then and compare this to how she is today. She has certainly grown in confidence in herself and in her role in the Royal Family.

You can reach out to me and to other listeners through the Linked In group I have opened up for this podcast. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13962658/