The Princess of Wales has opened up about the ‘life changing’ long term effects of her cancer treatment as she spoke with other cancer patients and staff at the Colchester Hospital in Essex

Princess Kate has spoken candidly about her cancer treatment as she bravely opened up about the “very scary, very daunting experience”.

The Princess of Wales met with fellow patients at a cancer wellbeing centre at Colchester Hospital on Wednesday, openly discussing her own experience.

Kate, who is continuing to return to public appearances while in remission from cancer, said there was an expectation that patients “crack on, get back to normal”. She described her cancer diagnosis as “life changing” and the treatment and recovery a “rollercoaster”, opening up on the importance of a holistic “mind, body and spirit” approach.

She admitted: “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment. Treatment’s done, then it’s like ’I can crack on, get back to normal’ but actually the phase afterwards is really difficult. You’re not necessarily under the clinical team any longer but you’re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to.

The Princess of Wales on a visit to Colchester Hospital today (Image: PA)

“And actually someone to help talk you through that, show you and guide you through that sort of phase that comes after treatment I think is really valuable.” She added: “You have to find your new normal and that takes time.” The centre provides therapy, community groups and holistic treatments including reflexology.

The Princess is in remission from cancer, gradually returning to work and recently pulled out of an appearance at Royal Ascot.

She repeatedly emphasised the importance of patients and their families being able to find support through their illness, saying it was too often difficult to reach. Speaking to patients and volunteers inside the centre, she said: “There is a whole phase when you finish your treatment, everybody expects you to be better – go! But that’s not the case at all.”

The Princess, speaking to therapist Amanda Green during a walkabout in heavy rain afterwards, disclosed that she had not yet tried reflexology but had acupuncture as part of her own health journey.

The discussions were the princess’s most personal and extensive insight into her own experience to date, seeing her reference her own ill health several times while empathising with patients and families.

Kate chats about her experiences to patients and staff (Image: Toby Shepheard / Kensington Palace)

“It’s life changing for anyone,” she said today. “Through first diagnosis or post treatment and things like that, it is life-changing experience both for the patient but also for the families as well. And actually it sometimes goes unrecognised, you don’t necessarily, particularly when it’s the first time [of diagnosis], appreciate how much impact it is going to have.

“You have to find your new normal and that takes time…and 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, through creativity and singing or gardening whatever it might be is so valuable and it’s great this community has it. It would be great if lots of communities had this kind of support.”

Kate references her own ill health during the visit (Image: Toby Shepheard / Kensington Palace)

Speaking to patients, including those whose cancer has returned and one who had lost his husband to cancer, the princess asked how the centre had helped them.

“That first time diagnosis is a very scary journey,” she said, referring to the benefits of having an on-site hospital support network where many volunteers have had cancer themselves and survived. Many newly-diagnosed patients at Colchester Hospital now visit the centre immediately for counselling and advice.

“To feel a sense of hope and positivity [from speaking to people who have already been through it] is such a positive thing in what is otherwise a very scary and daunting experience,” the Princess said.

She added that “science has told us that the mind, body and spirit experience is so important,” asking if the clinical team at the hospital had given any feedback about how the wellness centre had affected patients.

In January, Kate met with other patients undergoing treatment and staff, telling one patient about her feelings around having a chemotherapy port for treatment.

The Princess of Wales spoke about her experience while meeting with Katherine Field, a patient. Field, 45, had on a cold cap (which helps prevent hair loss) during her chemotherapy, and Kate then gestured to her own arm and chest.

“I got so attached to it,” the Princess said, and joked that she hesitated when she was told, “You can have it taken out now.”

Kate plants a ‘Catherine’s rose’ in the Wellbeing Garden (Image: PA)

Kate’s appearance today marks her first public outing since she pulled out of Royal Ascot last month as she seeks the right balance following her treatment for cancer. Since announcing in January she is in remission, the princess has been gradually returning to public duties.

The princess’s visit today also coincides with the donation of 50 ‘Catherine Roses’ to the garden. The rose, named after the princess, is being sold by the RHS with funds from sale of them going to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Kate was treated at the Royal Marsden following her cancer diagnosis last year.

In addition, 500 ‘Catherine’s Rose’ plants will be donated to wellbeing and community gardens across the UK this summer, including Maggie’s gardens for people affected by cancer, East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices and Horatio’s Gardens for those living with spinal injuries.

The princess has long advocated the benefits of spending time in the natural world, previously revealing how nature became her family’s ‘sanctuary’ in the wake of her cancer diagnosis and during her chemotherapy treatment.

She also opened up last month in a personal insight into what nature means to her on a trip to the Lake District with the Scouts earlier this year, admitting: “I find it a very spiritual and very intense emotional reconnection, I suppose, these environments.

“Not everyone has that same relationship perhaps with nature, but it is so, therefore meaningful for me as a place to balance and find a sort of sense of peace and reconnection in what is otherwise a very busy world.”