Queen Camilla has praised the healing power of nature during a visit to one of her oldest patronages, the Royal Trinity Hospice in Clapham, south London, which she described as “such a lovely place”.
She met nurses, doctors, patients and their families while touring the hospice, spending time with members of a bereavement group that meets every month and uses nature therapy to help people cope with loss. Camilla told the group: “you can’t beat nature, can you?”
Nature Therapy and Bereavement Support
The group described an exercise where they go outside into the garden and fill a jar with items such as flowers and leaves that represent their grief or remind them of a loved one who had died. Being outside and doing this activity helped them express their grief, and being with others who understood their emotions was described as very bonding at a difficult time.
Camilla told them: “It is a lovely idea. It would be a really good idea for hospices to follow suit.” She added: “You can think outside and get all your thoughts together.”
Garden Volunteers Share Personal Stories
In the garden, Camilla met several volunteers tending the grounds, including Philip Hunter, of Wandsworth, whose wife Hermione, who had pancreatic cancer, died at the hospice in April. They had been married for 44 years, and she spent 44 days at the hospice.
Hunter, a freelance biomedical research writer and father of three adult daughters, began volunteering in the garden one day a week just four weeks ago. He said: “I lost my wife in April. It is a good way to deal with the bereavement and to give back.”
Another gardener Camilla spoke to was Paul Oliver, whose wife Loretta, 50, died from late-diagnosed ovarian cancer at the hospice in 2013, when their daughter and son were aged just 10 and eight. Since then, he has helped raise funds for the Royal Trinity, where one of the inpatient rooms is named after Loretta. When he retired in 2020, he began volunteering in the garden.
Oliver told Camilla: “She spent the last six weeks here in May of 2013 and we spent a lot of time in the garden so this is to say thank you and to connect. She had incredible care, my kids were quite young at the time and Trinity was a fabulous support to us at that time.”
He said afterwards: “It’s like a family here. I’ve met a lot of other bereaved people who work in the garden, I’ve got some fantastic friends. At a time when your world is falling apart, you are supported by people. They looked after my wife and it allowed us to spend quality time with her.”
A Young Fundraiser Meets the Queen
Rohan Arias, who at the age of nine has become a fundraiser for the hospice, later handed over a batch of cookies he had baked. A delighted Camilla responded: “Are you a good cook? Do you like baking? We will see you in Bake Off soon. I will probably eat them on the way back – they look good.”
Rohan was introduced to the hospice through his school when he was five years old and went knocking on doors in the neighbourhood to help raise funds. In the last three years, he has raised more than £5,000 for Trinity and challenges himself each year to top his previous total. He has hosted picnics, baked cakes and cookies, and cooked two-course family meals, as well as baking cakes for nurses, staff and grieving families at Trinity’s remembrance evening.
Earlier, Camilla met Helen Brewerton, the hospice’s head of specialist community nursing, who leads 27 staff caring for about 400 people in the community. Brewerton gave Camilla a 20th anniversary pin in recognition of her long service supporting the hospice. Camilla responded it was “one of the first patronages that I took up and I am glad I am still here”, adding that she was “glad to be back” as “it is such a lovely place”.
