Princess Kate opens up about 'life-changing' cancer journey

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Kate Middleton said her cancer journey was a “life-changing experience” that had its ups and downs during recovery.

The Princess of Wales paid a visit to Colchester Hospital in England on Wednesday to speak about the toll it took on her and her family.

“It is a life-changing experience both for the individual patient, but also for the families as well — and actually it sometimes goes unrecognized, you don’t necessarily, particularly when it’s the first time, you don’t appreciate how much impact it is going to have,” the princess told a group of people in recovery, volunteers and staff at the hospital’s Cancer Wellbeing Centre, reports Britain’s Independent.

Princess Catherine announced in January that the cancer was in remission after nine months of treatment. It hasn’t been revealed what type of cancer she was diagnosed with.

The princess also spoke about finding your “new normal” once the treatment has ended and also praised the centre’s counselling and dietary advice for patients, relatives and caregivers.

“There is this whole phase when you finish your treatment that you, yourself, everybody expects you, right you’ve finished your time, go, you’re better, and that’s not the case at all,” she said.

“You have to find your new normal and that takes time.”

The princess also helped plant several Catherine’s Roses in the hospital’s wellbeing garden and spoke about the healing process.

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“Someone described the sort of healing, recovery journey to me as being like a sort of zig zag,” she said.

“It’s a rollercoaster, it’s not one smooth plane, which you expect it to be, but the reality is it’s not. You go through hard times and to have a place like this, to have the support network, whether its through creativity and singing or gardening, whatever it might be, is so valuable and it’s great that this community has it.

“It would be great if lots of communities had this kind of support.”

Harkness Roses and Kensington Palace are donating 500 Catherine’s Roses to wellbeing and community gardens across Britain.

In addition, proceeds of Catherine’s Rose’s sales are going towards a training program for clinical teams to help patients live well with and after cancer.