One of the Duchess of Cambridge's first patronages when she became a member of the royal family was East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH) which provides care and support to children with life-threatening conditions and their families across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.
Kate, 37, helped to launch EACH's £10m Nook Appeal in 2014 to raise funds for a new state-of-the-art children's hospice to replace their old facility at Quidenham and there's been some good news! After a five-year public appeal and almost two years of building, the new site in Framingham Earl, which has a hydrotherapy pool and a sensory room along with en-suite family accommodation rooms, is now open.
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The Nook in Framingham Earl. Credit: East Anglia's Children's Hospices
A spokesperson for EACH tells HELLO!: "The Nook is a 21st century building to provide 21st century care, spread across a single floor, with more areas for clinical care, larger and better equipped en-suite bedrooms, dedicated therapy rooms and much more. It will allow us to fully cater for an increased demand for our service and the ever-changing and more complex needs of those we care for. Set on a five-acre woodland site, closer to the centre of the county, hospitals and road networks, it also means the majority of families and staff will travel shorter distances to receive and deliver care."
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Kate helped to launch the appeal in 2014
The Duchess visited the Quidenham hospice in 2017 to see for herself why the Nook is vital and she attended the opening night of musical 42nd Street the same year, in support of the campaign. William and Kate were also guests at a fundraising gala dinner at Houghton Hall in 2016, where the Duchess wowed in a blush embellished Jenny Packham gown.
Kate gave her first public speech during an engagement with EACH, when she formally opened the Treehouse hospice in Ipswich on 19 March 2012 and she has carried out numerous engagements with the organisation since.
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