Kate Middleton records first public message (VIDEO)

Kate Middleton has released her first recorded message as Duchess of Cambridge. She speaks in a video asking people to support children’s hospices in the United Kingdom.

“As patron of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, I’ve been fortunate enough to see first-hand the work that they do for children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families,” she says in her message, recorded at Clarence House. “It is simply transformational.”

There are 49 children’s hospices across the UK, Middleton says.

“With our support, those providing children’s palliative care can continue to offer these extraordinary services,” she continues. “It does not bear thinking about what these families would do without this.”

Middleton’s video “will really help raise awareness of what these families need, today and in the future,” Barbara Gelb, chief executive of Together for Short Lives, which organizes the UK’s annual Children’s Hospice Week, told BBC News. "The duchess's message will be a real boost to children's hospices and all the charities that deliver vital health and social care to these families."

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