Caring Diana’s secret gift to a dying cancer patient
TOUCHING letters written by Princess Diana – regarding an Aids victim who needed £580 to visit Lourdes – have come to light. The exchange of correspondence between Diana and a friend of the sufferer reveal the warmth and generosity which the People’s Princess regularly showed to people less fortunate. In July 1996, just a year before her death in a Paris car crash, Margaret Bendon wrote to Diana seeking financial help on behalf of friend Vincent Hickey, who had both Aids and bowel cancer. Diana’s personal assistant wrote back, saying the Princess was considering the request. A second letter sent six days later had a cheque for £580 enclosed. And Diana even sent a third letter after Mr Hickey and Miss Bendon had returned from their spiritual sanctuary in France.
Vulnerable
She wrote of how delighted she was to be able to help. And Diana also put Miss Bendon at ease, by reassuring her that she knew the request had been a genuine one.
She wrote: “You need not have worried about proving your request was genuine.
“I was delighted to be able to help and so glad that he (Vincent) was well enough to travel.
“I am sure the benefit from such an experience goes a very long way to bring this comfort. To be able to play a part in providing it has given me great pleasure.”
A copy of the Coutts & Co cheque shows it was paid from the account of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales Office.
Diana was renowned for her work with Aids victims. She raised the global profile of the disease by opening the UK’s first purposebuilt HIV/Aids unit in London and shaking hands with victims.
The letters on Kensington Palace headed paper have been put up for auction by a collector of 20th century autographs.
They are being sold by Henry Aldridge and Son of Devizes, Wilts, for an estimated £3,000. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “These include the finest content letters of Lady Diana known to exist. They demonstrate the empathy and generosity Diana was able to show to some of the most vulnerable people in society.”
The estimate for the letters may have increased in the light of a sale in January last year of a candid set of notes written by Princess Diana to an ex-Buckingham Palace head steward.
The six letters written to the late Cyril Dickman, who served in the Royal Household for more than 50 years, vastly exceeded their guide prices and fetched £15,100.
One from 1992 revealed that Prince Harry was “constantly in trouble in school”. It went for £2,400, up from a guide price of £600-£900.
Another from 1984, shortly after Harry’s birth, thanked Mr Dickman for his “lovely card” of congratulations. It sold for £3,200, having had an estimated price of £400-£600.
The latest letters are going under the hammer on February 24.