King Charles III has been presented with a paper crown by a four-year-old girl whose mum is staying at a hospice.
The King received his royal gift during a visit to open the new Priscilla Bacon Lodge hospice in Norwich.
Arielle Bayliss, whose mother Rebecca Turner has stage three melanoma, made the garland during a hospice crafts session.
Ms Turner, 31, joked with the monarch about having a morning tipple and said: “It’s a day I’ll remember forever.”
She told the BBC: “He was really down to earth. I told him that we have Baileys at 11 o’clock every morning, we have the drinks trolley come round.
“He was telling me his favourite tipple – but I’ve forgotten what it is!”
Ms Turner, who was joined by her partner Jonathan Bayliss and mother Nicki Turner in her private room, told the King about her “rollercoaster” treatment and added: “Whether they’re on end of life or whether they’re going to go home, all of us here are extremely unwell and going through a really horrible time, so something like this is really uplifting.”
As well as spending time speaking to patients, the King took part in a breathing clinic and met Agnes the therapy dog, taking a turn around the therapy garden.
The new hospice complex replaced an old site and opened in September, close to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, providing a modern palliative care unit, inpatient beds, a day unit and a wellbeing centre.
The hospice’s chief executive Sandra Dinneen told the BBC the King “was so good with the patients” and that the visit gave “recognition and understanding” of what the nursing staff, volunteers and patients do.
“You can’t really put a value on it, and it will be part of the fabric of this place for ever,” she said.
Source : BBC
