Queen Camilla reveals heartwrenching wish about 'challenging year' at touching event

Queen Camilla kicked off Christmas with one of her most-loved traditions - and made a heartwrenching comment about 2024 coming to an end amid health battles for King Charles and the Princess of Wales.

The Queen invited a group of terminally and seriously-ill youngsters to a magical morning of festive fun, decorating her Christmas tree and enjoying a sausages and mash lunch. The annual tradition - now in its 19th year - at Clarence House sees children supported by the hospice Helen & Douglas House and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity to spend a morning with her at Clarence House, with a host of special surprises.

The children and young people were overjoyed to be met by Father Christmas before Her Majesty, as patron of both charities, invited them to decorate a Christmas tree in the Library.

They were also treated to a Christmas performance by the Band and Bugles of the Rifles before joining the Queen for a lunch. Despite the upbeat event, Camilla revealed to one family she was looking forward to an end to 2024, which has proved to be so challenging for the royal family because of the cancer diagnoses for both her husband, the King and Kate.

Marie Verney, 48, who attended with daughters Katie, 17, and Faye, 12, who has complex medical needs, chatted to Her Majesty at length after she had served up plates of sausage and mash in the shape of smiling faces and spooned gravy onto the plates of the eight youngsters invited to her annual festive lunch.

Marie, who was widowed when Faye was a baby, said of Camilla: "She was very understanding and sympathetic of people's lives. And her life hasn't been easy this year, has it? She said she'd be glad to get to the end of the year and I think a lot of the families here feel like that as well.

"So there was that mutual understanding, but also, she's a fun grandma. She talked about her granddaughters herself because they are 17, like Katie. She's a really down to earth lady and put us at ease.

"To me it was as though she was like a grandma, the concern, but also the fun - she's mischief. She said to Katie have you got a drink? She had elderflower. She said: 'Surely you'd like champagne?' Katie said yes. Next thing you know, she'd gone and got a glass of champagne for Katie and then she talked to Katie about driving and driving lessons, and then more serious stuff."

Faye and her daughters have been supported by the children's hospice Helen & Douglas House and Marie said the Queen, who has been its patron since 2007, was "very understanding and sympathetic of people's lives." She added: "When you have a child with profound additional needs, life is quite insular, and the fact that you're welcomed in to do something magical is quite amazing. It's lovely to be included in things."

Fortunately for Her Majesty, she was told by Santa that she had definitely made his good list this year when he greeted her and gave her a gift. "Ah hello Santa," Camilla said. "And a very happy Christmas to you." "I'm pleased to tell you that you are on the good list again this year," he said, shaking her hand. "Oh am I?" The Queen exclaimed. "Oh I am delighted." Taking her gift she said: "You are very kind. Thanks so much for coming."

Among the other children there was Lenny Willans-Jobson, five, who is one of just three children in the county to have Fox G1, a life-limiting condition. His mother, Kelly Johnson, sadly died in March and he was accompanied by his step-mother, Natasha Wilkinson, from Middlesbrough.

The Queen admired his "very smart dinner jacket and loafers", prompting Lenny to smile broadly. Natasha said afterwards: "What an incredibly special day. I just can’t believe we are here. He hasn’t stopped laughing and smiling. What a wonderful thing for her to have done for the children."

Shailza Leaver gave the Queen’s equerry, Major Ollie Plunket, a very special ornament to hang on the tree with his sword. It was a bauble featuring a picture of her son, Stanley, who died two years ago at the age of eight and a half from the same genetic and neurological condition that her surviving son, Riley, 11, suffers from. The bauble also bore his name and date of birth. The Queen made a point of telling Ollie to hang it carefully as it was so precious and he did so, placing it at the top of the tree.

She said: "Helen & Douglas House is like my second home, they are amazing. They wrap their arms around me and keep me whole. When I lost Stanley my worst scenario would have been for him to die in an ICU unit in hospital covered in tubes.

"Instead he slipped away peacefully in my arms at Helen & Douglas. We don’t know how much time we have with Riley. His condition has gone down in the last six months. But we want it to be happy. And being here with the Queen it is truly a magical, magical memory. So special."

Eight children helped by the hospice and the Roald Dahl Marvellous Children's Charity sat around the table covered in candy canes, sweets, gingerbread biscuits and chocolate Santa figures after helping to decorate a twinkling Christmas tree. They watched and helped as Major Ollie Plunkett, the Queen's Equerry, used his sword to place baubles and other ornaments onto its branches.

The Queen, in a royal blue velvet coat dress by Edina Ronay, a diamond and sapphire brooch and a small bee brooch, helped the children to choose decorations, telling Lenny, "I think the mouse, Lenny," and scooping up another decoration which dropped from the branch she had placed it on to try again.

"Ollie, how's the swordplay going?" she asked her equerry. And as she helped Sadie Simons and Chloe Carter, both nine, to place others on the tree, she told them: "My goodness me, you're doing brilliantly." After lunch, Camilla handed out party bags containing velvet and gold dressing up crowns, giant chocolate coins, teddies in bearskin hats and reindeer bells on leather straps bearing each child's name.

She was presented with flowers by the two charities and gave an impromptu speech, telling guests: "I want to wish you a very, very happy Christmas and say how wonderful it has been to have you all here today and as I always say, every year, it's the start of Christmas for me and I"m sure a lot of others who come here every year, to see how wonderful it is and the pleasure it gives the children and also the parents, because they need a lot of looking after as well.

"I think it's so important for these two absolutely fantastic charities, both of which I'm so proud to be patron of. We have Father Christmas this year, but I must apologise, no reindeer, they've been put in quarantine. If you look in your party bags you'll find a very special present from them as well.'

Asked what was in the gift-wrapped parcels he had presented to the Queen, Father Christmas said, "I could tell you, but Mrs Claus might shoot me." He had made a special stop off at Clarence House after their usual visitors, a pair of reindeer, were unable to attend because of Defra regulations around an outbreak of bluetongue virus, but guests were assured that the restrictions do not apply to Santa's own animals.

And he brought plenty of fun as he taught the youngsters how to flick gold chocolate coins across the white tablecloth at one another. Holly Sparks, who along with daughter Maisie Reid, five, posed for photographs with the Queen, said of the event: "It's like all our Christmases have come at once. It's so special, so memorable, and it's memories that will last a lifetime."

Helen House was the world's first children's hospice when it opened in 1982. Now Helen & Douglas House, it cares for local terminally ill children and their families from Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties by providing medical, emotional and practical support, helping families deal with the implications of living with a child who will die prematurely, so they can make the most of their time together.

Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charityprovides specialist nurses who support seriously ill children living with complex, lifelong health conditions by providing a personalised, bespoke and holistic ‘make things happen’ kind of care.

Over 150 Roald Dahl Nurses are working in NHS Trusts across the UK. Together, they care for over 36,000 children, getting to know each family and helping them navigate their complex healthcare journey at home and in the hospital.