On Monday, Kate Middleton visited a children’s hospital in London for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, where she also found the time to visit with patients and check out a space-themed art exhibit. She wore a blue pantsuit designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen on her visit to the new surgery unit at Evelina, a hospital for children with rare and complex conditions that has counted the princess as its patron since 2018. 

The new surgery unit, which will help the hospital serve 2,300 more patients every year, opened in July, but Kate was on hand to make it official and see it in action. According to People, she had help from two children when she cut through the pink ribbon. “Shall we cut this together?” she said.

While taking a tour designed to replicate the experience a child has in the hospital, she even took a few selfies. “She is clearly a very natural mother, and she was going out of her way to have selfies with not just the children but the parents as well,” James O’Brien, the hospital’s director of operations, told the magazine. “It was nice for her to sit down and spend some time with them. And she was complimentary about the artwork that was designed by the children in the building."

Support for children’s hospitals and hospice organizations has been one of Kate’s biggest charitable endeavors since she took on a role as the patron of the East Anglia Children’s Hospices in 2012. On Friday, she will host the third annual Together at Christmas carol celebration at Westminster Abbey, which will focus on the Shaping Up campaign she launched with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in January 2023. The audience will include midwives, home health visitors, and preschool teachers from around the UK, with the aim of celebrating their work.