Royal wedding invitation for TASSS student
Cuddles for Cancer founder will be at Prince Harry’s wedding but prime minister won’t be
Local teen Faith Dickenson has been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19 at Windsor Castle.
Dickenson said she plans to attend. She could hardly find words to express how honoured she felt on Tuesday.
“It’s overwhelming,” Dickenson told The Examiner in a phone interview.
Dickenson, 15, is in Grade 10 at Thomas A Stewart Secondary School.
Last spring she was one of 20 young people from around the world to receive a Legacy Award from the Diana Award organization.
The awards have been handed out for years in honour of Prince Harry’s late mother Diana, Princess of Wales. They honour Diana’s belief that young people can change the world for the better.
Dickenson founded Cuddles for Cancer at age 9.
Her chartity makes fleece blankets to comfort people who are dealing with cancer or trauma (she’s currently making blankets for families affected by the bus crash that killed members of a hockey team in Humboldt, Sask., for example).
Dickenson has made more than 3,000 blankets and has raised $30,000 to ensure they can be delivered free to those who need them.
She said that on April 3, she was at the Cuddles for Cancer production centre on Queen St. in Lakefield when she received a phone call from London, England. It was the spokesperson for the Diana Award.
The spokesperson told Dickenson she was one of seven Diana Award recipients who would be invited to the wedding.
Of those, she’s the only one invited from outside the U.K.; she’s also the only one of the 20 Legacy Award winners from last year to snag an invite.
For a week, she wasn’t be allowed to tell anyone except her parents about the invitation.
Kensington Palace officials released details Tuesday about some of the 1,200 members of the public who would be invited to be on the grounds of Windsor Castle for the event; Dickenson was told on April 3 to keep it quiet.
It meant biting her tongue often over seven days.
“It was so difficult,” she said. “I just wanted to shout it out!”
Because she’s younger than 16, Dickenson will be allowed to bring one person on the overseas flight with her (although her chaperone won’t be coming to the wedding - the seven Diana Award recipients will attend as a group).
Airfare for Dickenson and her chaperone - likely her grandmother, she said - will be covered, as will a three-night hotel stay.
She said she doesn’t know yet what she’ll wear to the wedding.
Then again, perhaps a clothing designer will want to dress her. It happened when she won her Diana Award: she wore a dress of eco-friendly silk, courtesy of Toronto designer Padina Bondar.
Dickenson is expecting an invitation in writing soon from the Royal Household.
Not even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can expect to receive such a package in the mail: it was announced on Tuesday that no politicians or world leaders would be invited to the wedding.