Duchess of Cambridge promises to wear pink princess dress to meet five-year-old cancer patient

Watch: Duchess of Cambridge promises to wear pink dress to meet cancer patient

The Duchess of Cambridge promised to wear a pink dress when she meets a five-year-old cancer patient who is the subject of one of the photographs in her Hold Still project.

Kate, 39, is marking the release of the Hold Still photobook on Friday by releasing some of the calls she had with the photographers and subjects of the pictures last autumn.

One of those was Mila Sneddon, who was four and had been having chemotherapy for leukaemia when the call took place.

Mila was separated from her father Scott, and her sister Jodi, for seven weeks at the beginning of the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020.

The family, from Falkirk, made the difficult decision that he should live separately because he was still working out of the home and they needed to protect Mila.

Mum Lynda took a picture of Mila kissing the kitchen window as she looked out at her father.

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The poignant image was selected by Kate and the judging panel at the National Portrait Gallery and was shown on billboards across the country as part of the open air exhibition of images.

In a call, Kate thanked the Sneddons for entering the picture, and asked how it had been to be separated at the early stages of lockdown.

Mila told the duchess they were separated: “Because he had to look after me because I went for a treatment.”

Kate asked: “Was it really hard not seeing him?”

Mila replied that it was and told her about being reunited, saying: “When he came into the house I was like, so surprised.”

The duchess told Mila: “It’s a very small age to have a big operation. Were you very brave? You were a very strong girl, weren’t you?”

Watch: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge view Hold Still exhibit

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Mila also took the opportunity to ask the duchess if she was wearing a costume, to which Kate said: "I’m not wearing a princess costume right now, I’m afraid Mila. Do you have lots of dressing-up outfits yourself?”

Mila said: “Yeah” and told the duchess her favourite colour was pink.

Kate added: “OK, well I have to make sure I go and try and find myself a pink dress so that one day hopefully, Mila we’ll get to meet, and then I’ll remember to wear my pink dress for you. Would that be nice?”

Sneddon told ITV that Mila is back in hospital at the moment, which she called a "wee bump in the road".

Despite the difficulties, Sneddon said that the lockdown had allowed the family to focus on Mila's treatment without any distractions.

She said: "We’ve had our ups and downs. Scott and I are so proud of Mila and Jodi, my eldest, through this time and the challenges they have had to overcome."

ITV interviewed then four-year-old Mila in September and she told the network: "There is a real life Princess who picked my picture. The Queen knows about everything, Everyone in this whole entire world will see my picture."

The video is one of the first to be released on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's YouTube channel, which they launched on Wednesday.

It is one of a series to be released over the next few weeks.