Kate wins hearts with a secret visit to sick children as lockdown eases

Kate Middleton is making the most of lifting lockdown restrictions in the UK, making a secret trip to a children's hospice this week where she helped plant a new garden.

The Duchess of Cambridge has spent the past months in isolation with her own children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, but ducked out on Thursday for a royal engagement.

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She headed to The Nook, one of East Anglia's Children's Hospices purpose-built facilities for sick and terminally ill children.

There she helped the kids and their families plant a new garden, getting down in the dirt as she helped pot a collection of plants she brought along.

The royal observed social distancing rules but wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty alongside volunteer gardeners, members of staff, and two families from the hospice.

"The care and the nurture that you provide children and families in the most unimaginable circumstances is just awe inspiring," the duchess wrote in a letter to mark the end of Children's Hospice Week 2020, which was the reason for her visit.

"I'd also like to pay tribute to all those families out there who are caring for and looking after a child with a life limiting illness. You do the most extraordinary job and I know it's particularly hard at the moment, so my thoughts go out to you all."

She has been a patron of East Anglia's Children's Hospices since 2012, it being one of the first royal patronages she took on after marrying into the royal family in 2011.

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The Duchess also shared a peek into her family's life during lockdown, revealing that she had been gardening with George, Charlotte and Louis at their Anmer Hall home.

"The children are really enjoying growing their sunflowers," she said, adding that they are in fierce competition over whose flower is growing best.

"Louis' is winning so George is a little grumpy about that!"

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She also spent time chatting with the children in care at The Nook and their families, including Sonny Pope-Saunders, six, who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour in February.

He even offered Kate a gift — a white wristband with a fundraising slogan — the Duchess gratefully accepting it and wearing it on her wrist for the rest of her visit.

She later promised Sonny she'd find a way to introduce him to his idol, Sir Elton John.

"Does he [want to meet Elton]? Because of his amazing music?" Kate asked Sonny's family.

"We'll have to make sure that happens! Once lockdown has finished."

During her visit, Kate also planted a sunflower in memory of a young boy who died at a different hospice in January.