The Duchess of York and Princess Eugenie paid an emotional visit to a teenager cancer unit at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool on Wednesday. The mother-daughter duo, who are honorary patrons of the trust, met teenagers who have been undergoing treatment for various types of cancer at the facility funded by the Teenage Cancer Trust. Eugenie, who works at Hauser & Wirth gallery in London, had taken time off work to accompany her mother on the engagement. Her older sister Princess Beatrice, 29, was unable to join as she is in the US.
"I think it's so important to come here and learn," said Eugenie, 27. "To come and experience that from as a teenager, when I was 18, but also to hear all the amazing things these units have done for teenagers and for the way you have outlook on your diagnoses." Beatrice and Eugenie both visited teenage cancer units on their 18th birthdays.
© Photo: PAEugenie and Sarah visited the Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool
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Their mum Sarah, 57, opened the Teenage Cancer Trust's first specialist cancer unit in 1990 and has attended almost all of the charity's 28 new unit openings since. Addressing patients and their parents, the Duchess said: "Young adults, or sufferers from teenage cancer, it was you all who taught me so much. You taught me forgiveness, you taught me kindness, you taught me never to give up, courage in facing adversity."
© Photo: PAThe mother-daughter pair met teenage cancer patients
The unit, which opened on the new hospital site in 2015, was marking its second birthday. It now includes a social space with a home cinema system, pool table, jukebox and breakfast bar that patients can make the most of.
Director of fundraising and marketing at Teenage Cancer Trust, Kate Collins, said: "It was a pleasure seeing our honorary patrons bring so much fun and positivity to the young people they met today, helping us celebrate the incredible support provided at this unit."
