Princess Eugenie gets candid about health struggles during meaningful visit

Princess Eugenie stepped out to support important cause, something very personal to her, while honouring her position in the royal family as the 12th in line to the throne.

The 35-year-old royal, who received a major honour from King Charles, left onlookers in awe with her down-to-earth demeanour while visiting charity Horatio’s Garden, which created a garden at Salisbury District Hospital, on Saturday.

It nurtures the wellbeing of people after spinal injury in beautiful, vibrant sanctuaries within the heart of NHS spinal injury centres. Eugenie herself underwent surgery for scoliosis at the age of 12, which is why she feels connected to the cause.

During her visit, Eugenie made a heart-breaking admission about her health struggles as she empathised with patients suffering from spinal injury.

“I had a corner room in the hospital with two windows looking out over a car park. I was too young to notice I couldn’t get outside; all I cared about was where my parents and sister were,” she told The Telegraph. “I couldn’t get out of bed or do anything for myself.”

Eugenie had to spend 10 days lying on her back in a hospital room and could resume school four months after her surgery. Surgeons had inserted eight-inch titanium rods into each side of her spine and one-and-a-half screws at the top of her neck.

The daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew shared that she felt “very embarrassed” about the whole thing. She noted that she especially felt ashamed when she couldn’t wash or dress herself. Moreover, she was conscious about her scar down her back.

However, she credited her mother for being “amazing”.

“She’d ask me if she could show it to people, then she’d turn me around and say, ‘my daughter is superhuman, you’ve got to check out her scar’. All of sudden it was a badge of honour – a cool thing I had. It trained my brain that it’s ok, scars are cool. It became a positive memory, a part of me, that I could do something with in the future. I could help heal other people.”