The Queen has made a surprise visit to a hospice to open its new centre along with her daughter Princess Anne.
Amid high temperatures in the UK, the monarch travelled the short distance from her Windsor Castle home to Maidenhead to tour the Thames Hospice to meet staff, volunteers and patients.
She used her walking stick to tour the building where she signed the visitors book and unveiled a plaque to officially open the new centre.
For more than 30 years the hospice has been providing palliative and end-of-life care and support to people across East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire.
Its services are free for those who need care, and more than 50 per cent of the £13 million annual running costs come from charitable support.
On Tuesday, the Queen celebrated the achievements of the NHS across the decades by awarding the institution the George Cross during a ceremony she hosted at Windsor.
The 96-year-old head of state was joined by Prince Charles for event where health leaders from the four home nations were each awarded the medal.
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The smiling Queen stood without her walking stick as she presented the NHS with the prestigious award and hailed the Covid vaccine rollout.
Among those attending the event was May Parsons, the nurse who delivered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials to Maggie Keenan on December 8, 2020.
The Queen, who wore a day dress, was on fine form and when told about the nurse’s historic first, she made her guests laugh with the quip: “You’re still alive?”
When the nurse told the Queen: “We’re terribly, terribly proud of the vaccination roll-out, it was so successful,” she replied: “Yes it was amazing.”
The George Cross was instituted by her father George VI in September 1940 during the height of the Blitz.
It is granted in recognition of “acts of the greatest heroism or of the most courage in circumstances of extreme danger” and recognises actions by civilians and military personnel not in the face of the enemy.
The award of the George Cross by the Queen is made on the advice of the George Cross Committee and the Prime Minister, and this marks only the third occasion on which it has been awarded to a collective body, country or organisation, rather than an individual.
