Princess Eugenie tells of her childhood scoliosis surgery
The 35-year-old is patron of Horatio’s Garden, a charity that creates peaceful garden spaces for spinal injury patients.
Princess Eugenie has opened up about her experience of scoliosis surgery as a child amid her ongoing support for patients with spinal injuries.
The 35-year-old is patron of Horatio’s Garden, a charity that creates peaceful garden spaces for spinal injury patients, and visited the charity’s garden at Salisbury District Hospital this week.
In an interview with the Telegraph, she reflected on her spinal surgery at age 12, and expressed strong support for the charity’s work.
She said: “Horatio’s Garden’s mission is to reach every spinal injuries unit in the UK. I’m happy to be on that journey with them. It needs to happen.”
The princess, 12th in line to the throne, recalled her own recovery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, where she spent 10 days on her back after surgeons inserted titanium rods into her spine to correct curvature caused by scoliosis.
She told the Telegraph: “I couldn’t get out of bed or do anything for myself”, adding that she felt “very embarrassed” ahead of the operation and later struggled with the emotional impact of post-surgery care.
It was four months before she was able to return to school.
She also spoke about the emotional impact of surgery, recalling how it was her mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, who helped her see her surgical scar as a “badge of honour”.
Eugenie said: “She’d (Sarah) turn me around and say, ‘my daughter is superhuman, you’ve got to check out her scar’.”
At her 2018 wedding, Eugenie wore a dress that revealed her scar to raise awareness of scoliosis.
Eugenie said she often received messages from anxious parents whose children are about to undergo spinal surgery, and she makes a point of offering encouragement and reassurance to help them through the experience.
She added: “I tell them not to feel ashamed, not just of the scar but of the whole experience; bed pans, the lot.”
Now a working mother of two, Eugenie juggles charity work alongside her role at international gallery Hauser & Wirth and said she and sister Beatrice feel a strong sense of duty to help others because of guidance from their grandmother, the late Queen.
She said: “My mum always taught me that giving back to others is the most important thing in life.
“Bea and I feel very strongly about this.
“My grandmother’s sense of duty was also instilled from a young age; we watched my parents, my granny and other family members working very hard.”
