The Duchess of Cornwall with three-month-old Jemima Winstanley and mother Nicola. Picture: Barry Goodwin.

by Adam Williams

The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Kent & Canterbury Hospital on Thursday as part of a tour of the county.

As patron of the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS), the Duchess met patients and staff at the hospital’s osteoporosis department, as well as members of the Kent branch of the NOS.

After flying in by helicopter and landing at the nearby Simon Langton Grammar School for Girls, the Duchess was taken on a tour of the hospital’s small, but very active unit.

Among the patients she chatted with in the screening room was Nicola Winstanley and her three-a-half-month daughter Jemima.

Nicola, 33, an administrator from Mariners View, Whitstable, was undergoing her first scan since becoming a mother to check for traces of osteoporosis.
She said: “It was really nerve-wracking meeting the Duchess, but she was so easy to talk to and very pleasant.

“I should find out the results of my first scan in 10 days time. I was on steroids for five months during my pregnancy, so this is very much a precautionary move to check there was no damage to my bone growth.”

Osteoporosis can affect one in two women and one in five men in the UK aged over 50. Cases in people aged under 50 are very rare.

The unit, which serves 800,000 people across east Kent, has two Hologic scanners, one of which was donated on behalf of the NOS.

The Duchess began her day with a visit to the Battle of Britain National Memorial to the Few in Capel-le-Ferne. She unveiled a new sculpture by Sir Keith Park in her role as patron of the War Memorials Trust. She completed her day at the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society in Chatham, touring the workshop which helps restore historical aircraft and meeting friends of the society.

Read more reaction and see more pictures in next week's Kentish Gazette.