Kate Middleton arrives for an art workshop at Evelina London Children’s Hospital

The Duchess of Cambridge got stuck into an arts and crafts session on a visit to Evelina London Children’s Hospital today. 

Kate, dressed in a Dolce & Gabbana jacket and skirt, posed for Instax instant photos and helped cut-out paper people with young patients and their families. 

The royal was also given a handmade ‘rag wreath’ by Luke Wheeler-Waddison, 10, and his little sister Savannah, four, which she promised to put up in her daughter Princess Charlotte’s room. 

‘Wow! That’s so lovely. Charlotte will love this,’ Kate exclaimed, on being told it had taken the brother and sister between three and four hours to make.  

She also happily posed for a photograph taken by Luke using an Instax instant-print camera, which the youngster, who was first operated on for a congenital heart condition at the hospital when he was just five days old, proudly showed off. 

The duchess, who is patron of the hospital, was also there in her capacity as patron of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) which runs creative arts workshops for young patients at hospitals across London. 

The Duchess of Cambridge kept her look polished for the engagement today, plumping for a bespoke boucle tweed two-piece from Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana. 

The flattering jacket features sapphire-esque buttons while the skirt showed off her svelte legs. 

Kate first wore the ensemble on an engagement in February last year, but this time she’s teamed it with £355 black block heel pumps by Gianvito Rossi and her Mappin & Webb earrings.

Arriving at the hospital, the duchess was presented with a posy by Anna-Victoria Amoafa-Sennie, nine, who suffers from achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism.

She sunk to her heels to thank the youngster before spending an unscripted fifteen minutes chatting to staff, patients and parents who had lined the entrance hall to see what the fuss was all about. 

Unusually she also posed for several mobile phone pictures – something that was to become a theme of the day.

Upstairs in the hospital she took part in a creative arts workshop led by the NPG, promoting health, wellbeing and happiness through art.

The youngsters, all patients and their siblings, were colouring in their own stage sets which included a photograph of themselves on the stage.

The NPG gives each child receiving care at the hospital a free book, Playful Portraits, to encourage them to spend their time on the ward enjoying creative activities.

The gallery also brings in artists for regular workshops across Evelina, Great Ormond Street, Newham University Hospital and The Royal London.  

Kate first sat down on a table where artist Jessica Rosenfield was instructing the children.

‘Who is this here? ‘ asked Kate, pointing to a picture of a Kallum Stuart, six, who is being treated for kidney failure, and was accompanied by his twin brother, Blake. ‘This is brilliant.’ 

She added: ‘What a treat it is for me to meet you all today. What a treat! I am so pleased. ‘ Kate then laughing responded to a ‘high-five’ from Kallum. 

Chatting with artist Jessica, the duchess remarked: ‘It’s wonderful to see what art therapy adds. To be able to paint, to draw, to be able to tell your story. ‘ 

Moving to her second table Kate met Luke and Savannah, who was dressed in a pretty floral Monsoon dress bought especially for the occasion.

She touched Luke’s arm and admired his ‘war wound’ – a large scar he has as result of breaking his arm last autumn after falling off some monkey bars and having to have plates and pins inserted in. 

Luke’s mother, Joanne Wheeler, 47, later explained that she discovered her son had a congenital heart condition in the womb and he was first operated on just five days after he was born. He still attends regular check-ups at Evelina and may require further surgery in the future ‘This place saved my son’s life, it’s as simple as that,’ she told Kate.

‘We would do anything for the staff here. ‘ In fact Luke, from Rainham, Kent, has managed to raise more than £14,000 this year to donate towards the hospital’s work by selling the rag wreaths he and his sister make, doing a sponsored swim, auctions and standing with collecting boxes at The Oval .

He said: ‘We just really wanted to say thank you to her for coming an spending time here. She was really touched, I think. I told her that I had the same birthday as her son, George, and my sister is four, like Charlotte. She said Charlotte would love to have the pink wreath up in her room. It would be amazing if they did that.

‘Not many people get to see a princess in real life and she is going to be the Queen one day. It was really exciting.’ 

Smiling at his father Anthony Waddison, 42, Luke’s mother added: ‘We just feel like we are family here. This is our extended family. I have just become an ambassador for the hospital. There’s nothing we wouldn’t do for them. We can’t ever repay them for what they have done for us. ‘ 

Luke said he didn’t feel nervous taking the duchess’s photograph with one of the cameras provided to the children for their art project and felt very proud of the end result – which was picture perfect.

‘I will take it home and keep it forever,’ he vowed.

Tracey Sturt, Kallum’s mother, said afterwards that it had been ‘such a pleasure’ to meet Kate, who had been ‘brilliant’ with the children.

‘The staff here have saved Kallum’s life so many times over, I can’t tell you,’ she said.

Her husband Chris, from Romford, Essex, added: ‘The support we have had from the hospital has been amazing. ‘ Kate also visited some of the patients on the hospital’s Beach Ward, including ‘little Clive’, who was with his father, ‘big Clive’.

The 12-year-old from Gravesend, Essex had already had surgery at the hospital for a cleft palate and was preparing to go down again for a bone graft on his gum minutes after Kate left. 

His father, Clive Edwards, 59, said: ‘She was lovely and probably helped to keep his mind off things. I even asked for a photograph and she posed for one. I didn’t know if she would but thought ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ and she couldn’t have been nicer. My wife is going to be furious she wasn’t here for this but she is at home with the baby.’

Kate also cooed over baby Rose Parker, 13 months, and as she made her smile by tickling her legs told her mother, Emily: ‘My son Louis also has very tickly knees.’

Little Emily suddenly went yellow on Boxing Day and her parents were told that she was suffering from liver failure and would probably die.

Against the odds she pulled through, but was yesterday diagnosed with a rare genetic metabolic condition called glycogen storage disease, which is likely to affect her for the rest of her life.

Her mother Emily, from Portsmouth, said: ‘We have had some dark times in recent weeks and only got the prognosis yesterday, which as incredibly difficult. But today has been such a tonic.

‘I’m trying to be cool about this but she [Kate] is really my favourite [out of the royals]. When I look back at this whole experience, for her to take the time to come and see us… it will be one of the things that stands out and keeps me going. It’s been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.

‘Rose was a completely healthy baby until Boxing Day and then she went bright yellow. I took her to A&E and they told me she was not going to make it. I was told she would need a liver transplant. And then miraculously and with the help of the medicines they gave us, she pulled through. We now just have to deal with this day to day. 

‘The work that has gone into it from all the staff here has just been incredible.

‘You wouldn’t know it to look at her. ‘

She also spent time with Benjamin Ibendahl, three, another seemingly healthy young boy who got a mild cold at Christmas which developed into a life-threatening auto-immune condition that has left him in a wheelchair.

His mother, Sarah, from Blackheath, south east London, explained: ‘He was completely normal and health and got a very slight cold but suddenly developed an autoimmune disease, which gave him paralysis in his legs up. He was misdiagnosed to start with but we eventually got him here to Evelina and they knew straight away what was the matter and started treatment within 12 hours .’

She explained her Benji was undergoing therapy and had been using the hospital’s sensory room, school and counselling service and the expectation was that he would walk again – but that it would be a tough few months.

‘He has to remember how to move now, its been painful but we are hopeful. He is quite young and doesn’t understand what is happening, fortunately,’ she added.

Sarah added of the Duchess: ‘She was really nice. Very touchy, she put her hand on me. So lovely and down to earth.’

But she admitted making one cheeky comment: ‘I did tell her that our husbands had something in common – it had taken them nine years to ask us to marry them! ‘ Asked what Kate had said: ‘She laughed politely and gave a knowing smile. ‘ Sarah added that her husband’s name was Ralph – ‘although he probably won’t thank me for that!’

Lastly she met Faith Morton, 14 who was also having cleft palate surgery. She also got Kate to pose for a picture and said; ‘It was wonderful.’

Her mother, Danielle Morton, added: ‘She had been so worried when we went for something to eat that she was going to miss her that she nagged me to come back!

‘And what a lovely woman she was! I didn’t expect her to be so down to earth.

‘I said to her ‘can i just ask whether you can have normal days and just be you?’ And she said ‘Oh yes when we are in the countryside with the kids, yes we do.’ She was just lovely to chat with. ‘ Dr Nicholas Cullinan, director of the NPG, said of the visit: ‘It is an honour to share with our Patron, the Duchess of Cambridge, the vital work that we do at Evelina London. We are immensely proud of our Hospital Programme, which demonstrates the positive impact art and creativity can have on health and wellbeing.’

Marian Ridley, director of Evelina London added that they were ‘proud’ to host the visit, adding: ‘Art is an invaluable therapy for children and young people while they are in hospital, not only to develop their creativity but, but provide enjoyment that alleviates anxieties which they may be feeling.