As WHO’s resident royal reporter, I’ve been lucky enough to meet or get up very close to my fair share of the blue-blooded.
Among others, I met King Charles and Queen Camilla on their recent tour, tagged along with Queen Mary of Denmark (then the Crown Princess) for a day of engagements while she was in Sydney last year, curtsied as I was presented to the Duchess of Edinburgh at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party and shook Prince William’s hand as he worked the crowds outside of the Dog and Duck pub in London just ahead of the coronation.
But none of those experiences could prepare me for meeting Sarah, the Duchess of York.
On November 6, I joined a small group of reporters who accompanied Sarah Ferguson as she spent a morning visiting the Children’s Medical Research Institute in Westmead.
“Hello everybody,” the duchess beamed as she immediately began shaking hands and posing for photos with staff and patrons.
Getting up this close to a member of the royal family normally only comes after spending hours waiting under a blazing sun or stormy sky, with the fleeting encounter coming through a thick bunch of security officers that quickly usher them away.
Fergie, however, blew in like a breath of fresh air, with the most vivid green eyes I’d ever seen and an infectious laugh that filled the entire room.
While she barely had an entourage, the duchess did have the important things – bags of books and plastic tiaras.
“When your on the public stage, when you have a public platform, my job, my personal job is to write the books to give the magic to help the children come out of whatever they are going through,” she said.
Members of the British royal family are also known to keep the media at arms length, however, the duchess, exuding warmth, went out out of her way to greet and say a few words to each reporter, photographer and camera person.
CMRI, which is behind the annual Jeans for Genes Day, conducts research into genetic diseases affecting children, including cancer.
It is a cause that is very close to the duchess’s heart but has become even more poignant following her own diagnosis with two forms of cancer.
Fergie underwent a mastectomy and reconstruction after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023. Months later, she also had a malignant melanoma removed.
“You can never say you’re cancer free, you can say that at this moment you are very well and you keep an eye on getting tests,” she said during the visit.
“In my case I check for my melanoma every 6 to 8 weeks because of the malignant melanoma I had that I was very lucky hadn’t gone travelling to the lymphs.”
During her visit, Sarah met with staff from ProCan to learn about the ground-breaking research they are conducting.
At the Western Sydney laboratory, scientists have established the world’s largest database of the proteins of cancer. When a new patient is diagnosed, their protein signature is tested and compared to similar sufferers.
Information is then provided back to their oncologist on treatments that have or haven’t worked in previous instances.
“I know that feeling of fear, I know that feeling when you think there are no solutions,” the duchess said, revealing how important she feels their work is.
Where Fergie, whose eldest daughter Princess Beatrice is currently expecting her second child, most shines though is when she meets children and their families who are involved in their research.
Relaxing on a giant footrest, the duchess played with each child, handing out her Little Red dolls, adjusting the tiaras she has handed out and reading aloud from her new children’s book, Flora and Fern: Wonder in the Woods, that was recently released through Australian publisher Serenity Press.
With everyone made to feel like a prince or princess, some of the littlest guests of honour seemed to be unsure of who their special visitor was.
Oliver, 8, took a moment to have a quiet word with the duchess about how people shouldn’t draw in books as she took a pen to his copy.
“It’s OK because I wrote it so your mummy and daddy would like me to sign it,” she told him.
If magic was what Fergie hoped to bring to the day, the smiles on the faces of the children proved she had clearly succeeded.
But the visit was as equally appreciated by the parents.
Naomi, the mother of 4-year-old Acute Myeloid Leukaemia patient Harrison, told WHO how thankful she was that the duchess came to learn about CMRI’s innovative work.
“This visit means everything,” she said. “Without [ProCan] Harrison would have received the wrong type of treatment and might not be here today, so research is the most important thing and it is amazing that the duchess is here today supporting that and shining a spotlight on it.”
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