HRH Duchess of Cornwall visits Aylesbury charity
It's one of Camilla's first engagements since the announcement she'll be known as 'Queen Consort' when Charles becomes king
Last updated 10th Feb 2022
The Duchess of Cornwall has spent the afternoon in Aylesbury, visiting a charity.
Camilla visited the Thames Valley Partnership, which works with victims of crime, and offenders.
She was welcomed by Vice Lord-Lieutenant Alexander Boswell and Nikki Ross, chief executive of the Thames Valley Partnership.
"It felt really natural"
The Duchess has been speaking to staff at the Thames Valley Partnership.
"It's so important, (this) work, thank goodness we have people like you around," she said.
Workers she spoke to told Greatest Hits Radio: "It felt really natural actually. We had a conversation around volunteering, because a lot of the work we do uses volunteers. It was very engaging."
"It's nice that someone of her profile would show interest in work with victims and offenders and helping society. She made me feel very at ease, and very natural."
"I was able to explain to her how difficult to finance the centre of the charity. It's relatively easy to finance the individual programmes but to finance the centre of the charity is quite tough. She can empathise with that, so it's quite helpful."
"I had a fairly sleepless night last night"
Chief Executive of the charity, Nikki Ross, played a role in organising the visit.
She told Greatest Hits Radio: "It's been on the cards for a while now because of Covid. It's been cancelled a few times so I think I had a fairly sleepless night last night!
"The Duchess of Cornwall was really engaging, really interested in what we were doing. We're quite a unique charity because we deal with victims of crime on one hand, and we look after them and all of their needs through the justice system. We also, uniquely look after offenders as well, so quite a lot to talk about"
Nikki added: "The main reason for her visit was to support domestic abuse victims. While it's great for the charity and it's great to have ourselves highlighted, what's really important is the needs of the domestic abuse victims and making sure they get what they need."
"Very honoured" to be Queen Consort
The visit is one of her first, since the announcement she will take the title of Queen Consort when the Prince of Wales becomes king.
On a visit this morning in London, she has said she is "very honoured" to be given the title.
It comes as her husband, the Prince of Wales, has been forced to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19.
However, a spokesperson for Clarence House confirmed Camilla has tested negative.
Staff at the charity were in good form at the end of her visit. We asked one of them if the Duchess of Cornwall's visit to Aylesbury will live long in the memory...
Her reply: "Course it will, we'll always remember that she used our loo!"