During their historic five-day royal tour of Pakistan, Prince William and Kate Middletown visited the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, the same hospital that the late Princess of Wales, Diana, visited a couple of times before her tragic death.
The Duke and Duchess Cambridge met young children with cancer, who are undergoing treatment in the pediatric ward.
The hospital, which was built by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in memory of his mother who died from cancer in 1985, is located in the center of Lahore.
While his mother was battling cancer, Khan witnessed the woeful plight of poor cancer patients and vowed to build a medical center that is accessible to all, irrespective of the status. The hospital opened its doors in 1994.
In February 1996, 18 months prior to her death, Diana visited the hospital along with Khan and his former wife, Jemima Goldsmith, who was a close friend of the royal. Diana raised funds for the medical center and met the family of her great love, Dr. Hasnat Khan, a British-Pakistani heart and lung surgeon.
Diana was on a private visit to raise funds for the hospital – as well as meet the family of her great love, Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan – but had been advised not to undertake the trip due to political tensions with the UK.
The royals met 5-year-old Muhammad Samir in the chemotherapy ward, who is battling Hodgkin lymphoma. The Duke also met the boy’s family. He played with the boy by drawing in a coloring book. They also met a 7-year-old, Wafia Rehmani, who has kidney cancer. The Duchess wore matching tiaras with Wafia and hosted a toy tea party on her bed. Wafia said she wants to be a doctor and showed Kate her toy medical set.
