A single handwritten message, placed among tens of thousands of glowing white roses, has delivered one of the most poignant royal moments of the year.
“In loving memory of all those who have lost their lives to cancer.”
The note, signed simply “C”, was left by the Princess of Wales beside a rose she personally planted at the Ever After Garden in Chelsea – a public installation created to honour lives lost to cancer and to raise funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
The message was revealed in a short, understated video released by Kensington Palace, showing Catherine walking slowly through the garden at Duke of York Square. Around her, more than 30,000 illuminated white roses shimmered in the dusk, each one representing a person who has died from cancer. The effect was deliberately restrained, allowing the symbolism to speak for itself.
For Catherine, the gesture carries an unmistakable personal resonance. Diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in early 2024 following abdominal surgery, the Princess underwent preventative chemotherapy at The Royal Marsden Hospital through the autumn. In January 2025, during a visit to the hospital – where she and the Prince of Wales were announced as joint patrons of The Royal Marsden Trust – she shared that she was now in remission.
“It is a relief to now be in remission and I remain focussed on recovery,” she said at the time.
That sense of perspective, shaped by experience rather than protocol, runs through her contribution to the Ever After Garden. In a personal message released alongside the video, Catherine wrote: “Every flower, every light, is a memory held together, an illumination of shared love, remembrance, and hope.” The note was signed with her initial alone, reinforcing the intimacy of the moment.
The Princess’s own rose – marked with her handwritten dedication – sits quietly among thousands of others, deliberately indistinguishable. There is no attempt to single herself out. Instead, the emphasis is firmly on collective loss and shared remembrance, a theme that has increasingly defined her public engagements since returning gradually to work.
The Ever After Garden, first created in 2019, has raised more than £1.2 million for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, a cause long associated with the Royal Family. Opened this year on 13 November, the installation will close on 16 December, drawing visitors from across the country who walk through the softly lit display in silence or reflection.
Catherine’s appearance at the garden came just a day after King Charles released his own deeply personal video message in support of Stand Up To Cancer, urging the public to take up available screening programmes. In the broadcast, the King revealed that, following an early diagnosis and effective treatment, he will begin a lighter treatment regimen for his own undisclosed cancer next year.
“Throughout my own cancer journey, I have been profoundly moved by what I can only call the ‘community of care’ that surrounds every cancer patient,” the King said, paying tribute to specialists, nurses, researchers and volunteers. Yet his message also carried a warning, describing his deep concern that at least nine million people in the UK are not up to date with cancer screenings – “nine million opportunities for early diagnosis being missed”.
Together, the King’s plea and the Princess’s silent tribute form a striking portrait of a Royal Family increasingly willing to speak – or, in Catherine’s case, to communicate without words – about cancer in a way that prioritises empathy over formality.
There was no speech at the Ever After Garden, no press line, no choreography beyond the gentle act of planting a rose. Instead, the power lay in the simplicity of the message and the decision to frame the moment around remembrance rather than recovery.
Additional reporting by Jessica Ilse.
