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Royal Marsden Hospital

November 11, 2011 by · Comments Off on Royal Marsden Hospital 

Royal Marsden Hospital, After opening a children’s cancer ward with Prince William last month, the Duchess of Cambridge has written a letter to a patient she met there.

Kate, 29, sent the heartfelt message to 9-year-old Fabian Bate, in which she said she admired his “strength of character.”

According to the Evening Standard, the duchess promised to write on Bate’s personal blog after meeting him at The Royal Marsden Hospital on Sept. 29. Instead, the letter arrived at the family’s home address, and he posted it online.

The letter, dated Oct. 13, is written on St. James’ Palace letterhead and signed “Catherine.”

“Despite the enormously demanding course of treatment you are undergoing, I was so touched by your strength of character and delighted to hear the news that one of your big sisters will be able to donate bone marrow to you later this year,” she wrote. “I will keep my fingers crossed that your health goes from strength to strength over the months ahead.”

She added, “This must be a troubling time for you, your parents and your sisters, but I know I left The Royal Marsden assured by how incredibly talented, kind and clever the team at the hospital are. Combined with your belief and positive energy, you couldn’t be in better hands.”

“It was a very personal letter,” Bate’s father, Darrell, told the paper. “It certainly didn’t look like the standard templates these official letters so often use. It contained very specific information that she must have remembered. We were very touched as she must do a lot of this stuff and to remember Fabian is very moving.”

Bate was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2006, the Evening Standard reports, and the disease returned in July of this year. He reportedly hopes to receive a bone marrow transplant from one of his two older sisters in December.

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