The Queen appeared at the thanksgiving service for the Duke of Edinburgh today, with the help of a walking stick.
The service celebrated Prince Philip's public service and a "long life lived fully". Joining the Queen, other senior members of the Royal family came together for the service at Westminster Abbey, including Prince Charles and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
In recent weeks the Queen has been forced to pull out of several high profile events, including Commonwealth Day, amid reports that the "frail" Queen has been using a wheelchair. But today, she relied on the use of a walking stick as her son, Prince Andrew accompanied her to the event.
READ MORE: The Queen set to attend Prince Philip's memorial service amid health worries
Despite using the walking aid to walk to her seat in Westminster Abbey, the Queen quickly dropped the walking stick once she was sitting. For the rest of the ceremony she was able to stand unaided to sing hymns and pay her respects.
The 95-year-old monarch has had problems with her mobility and had to pull out of the Commonwealth Service earlier this month. Pictures released last week showed her majesty standing with a walking stick at an event. It was the Queen's first official face-to-face engagement with a number of people for more than seven weeks since her Platinum Jubilee reception at Sandringham House.
She contracted covid in February and also spent more than three months from October under doctors' orders to only conduct light duties.
Prince Philip died last April, during covid regulations that restricted gatherings including funerals and memorials. Keeping to the rules meant that Prince Philip's funeral had to be limited, producing a memorable image of the Queen sitting alone.
The Queen and Prince Philip had been married for 73 years and in her Christmas message the Queen spoke in unusually personal terms about the loss of her "beloved" Philip. Wearing a brooch she had worn on their honeymoon, she remembered her "irrepressible" husband and his "capacity to squeeze fun out of any situation".
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