The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, are set to visit south Wales on Tuesday ahead of St David's Day. The royals will visit a leisure centre and air ambulance base on Tuesday, February 28, to champion mental health initiatives and meet local communities.
Their Royal Highnesses will visit Aberavon Leisure & Fitness Centre to hear how sport and exercise can support mental health and wellbeing, before travelling to the base of the Wales Air Ambulance charity in Llanelli to meet emergency workers, volunteers and supporters.
This will be the first time the pair have visited Wales on official royal duties in 2023. They visited Anglesey and Swansea in September, 2022, as part of their first royal visits as Prince and Princess of Wales. You can read more about that here. The pair attended Wales' Six Nations clash with England on Saturday, February 25. You can get more local news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The Prince of Wales attended the Senedd in November, 2022 to meet with political leaders and expressed his desire to deepen the trust and respect of the people of Wales over time. This came after the monarchy came under fire for appointing a new Prince of Wales after Charles III ascended to the throne following the death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth.
On Tuesday, at Aberavon Leisure & Fitness Centre in Port Talbot, their Royal Highnesses are expected to tour the facilities, including a large indoor sports hall where young people and Welsh professional athletes, among them, Harrison Walsh and Hannah Brier, will be taking part in an athletics and gymnastics session.
On their final engagement of the day, the Prince and Princess visit the headquarters of the Wales Air Ambulance in Llanelli. The charity, which was founded in 2001, has completed over 43,000 missions. Their Royal Highnesses will meet emergency workers, volunteers and supporters and will hear about their recent operations across Wales.
It is expected that the royals will speak to emergency workers about the importance of prioritising their own mental health and will officially open a new family room which has been designed by a bereaved family who lost their father in a tragic road accident. The room has been created as a safe space for families, nurses and volunteers and The Prince and Princess will sit down with the family who designed the room, along with the nurses and volunteers who have helped them.
The Prince of Wales previously served as both an Air Ambulance and an RAF search and rescue helicopter pilot and has shared his passion for mental health support for emergency responders, launching the Blue Light Together package of mental health support in 2021.
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