The Duke of Sussex in Sheffield

The Duke of Sussex visits Sheffield to visit organisations with a focus on supporting children, higher education, and the rehabilitation of wounded, injured and sick Servicemen and women.

His Royal Highness’s first stop was to Sheffield Children’s Hospital to officially open the new wing.

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust is one of only three dedicated children’s hospital trusts in the UK and provides integrated healthcare for children and young people, including community and mental health care as well as acute and specialist services. The new wing which was opened by The Duke includes four new wards, therapy rooms, a patient dining room, a parent relaxation room, a teenager hangout room and has a Play Tower right at its heart. All 72 new children’s beds have a fold-out bed next to them, giving parents a comfortable place to stay with their child.

The Duke of Sussex met patients and their families on the new unit, and saw children enjoying the new playroom before stopping by the Plaster Room where children can choose their cast colour, add glitter and choose different characters to make the experience more fun.

The Duke also signed the visitors book which was previously signed by Diana, Princess of Wales when she opened an extension to the hospital.

At Sheffield Hallam University The Duke of Sussex learnt about academics and student’s commitment to applied learning in teaching and research from viewing a Virtual Reality rehabilitation demonstration, which uses technology to make it easier for amputees to train themselves to use prosthetic limb to hearing from academics and students working with the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, who have developed innovative new technology to provide alerts and assistance to field staff working in inhospitable and dangerous parts of the world.

Finally, The Duke met engineering students who will present a racing car they built, and raced at Silverstone the previous week.

Later that afternoon, as Patron of the Invictus Games Foundation, The Duke visited the Invictus UK Trials, which are hosted and managed by Help for Heroes, Royal British Legion, and the Ministry of Defence.

The trials form part of the selection process for the team representing the UK at the forthcoming Invictus Games The Hague 2020 and will see over 350 competitors over five days take part in up to nine sports.

At the English Institute of Sport Sheffield, The Duke met Wheelchair Basketball competitors, cheered on Powerlifting competitors from the stands with friends and family, before meeting the competitors and taking part in the medal presentation.