King Charles visits Rachel House

It was a special day for Rachel House on Friday as King Charles came to town and met up with two families, a staff nurse and a volunteer!

The families of Orla Neary and Izzy Hughes, staff nurse, Freya Bown and retail volunteer, Lynda Millar met with His Majesty at the Kinross Day Centre. The King was very interested in the work of CHAS and asked the families lots of questions about how they were supported by the charity.

Freya presented him with a special certificate from everyone at CHAS with his name printed in our special alphabet letters and explained to him that the letters were all designed by the children we support. King Charles was very interested to hear about the CHAS alphabet and thanked Freya for the kind gesture.

Speaking after the visit, Freya said: "It was a real honour to have been invited to meet King Charles and to represent CHAS in this way. He was really interested in hearing about my work as a nurse and the work of CHAS in general and said thank you when I handed him a gift of a certificate of his name in the CHAS brand letters. It was lovely too that he spent so much time chatting to the children and the families and learning all about them and how they are supported by Rachel House and by CHAS. It was a very special day for us all."

Orla's dad Richard said: "It was such an honour to meet the King and such a special day for us all as a family. He shook our hands and put us at ease straight away and asked about how Orla was supported by CHAS and also asked about her communication needs. He was very interested in the work of CHAS as a whole and we told him about all the ways in which the charity supports us. He chatted to Caoimhe too for a while and complimented her on her curtsying, saying it was very good which she was delighted to hear as she had been practicing lots beforehand!"

Izzy's parents also described the meeting as "very special" and enjoyed telling the King all about how they are supported by CHAS as a family. The King was also very interested in chatting to Izzy's dad Rick about his job as a pilot in the RAF in Lossiemouth.

Lynda said it had been "a very special honour both to meet King Charles and to represent CHAS as a volunteer."

We also had a team of CHAS staff, families and children from the local schools cheering on the King as he made his way past the Learning Zone towards Kinross House.