Having a ball! William, Kate, Charles and Camilla wow patients at military rehabilitation centre

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Luke O'Reilly|Katy Clifton11 February 2020

The Duke of Cambridge tried shooting some hoops with help from the Prince of Wales on a rare joint visit with the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge to a military rehabilitation centre.

Charles, Camilla, William and Kate visited the new Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday and were given a tour of the facility by its commanding officer Captain Alison Hofman.

The royals met patients undergoing therapy, visited a prosthetics workshop and stopped at the gym where a game of wheelchair basketball was under way.

Run by the Ministry of Defence, the centre at the Stanford Hall estate, near Loughborough, began admitting patients in October 2018 and provides rehab treatment to serving military who have suffered battlefield, neurological or other injuries and illnesses.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, talk to patients taking part in wheelchair basketball
POOL/AFP via Getty Images

William took up an invitation from Major Les Reid, as the 49-year-old “loaned” the Duke his wheelchair to shoot a few hoops himself.

Confidently wheeling up to the mark, William then shot and missed three times, to groans.

His father stepped in to lend a hand, grasping the back of the wheelchair and moving it a few feet closer to the basket – raising laughs from Kate, Camilla and the watching patients.

As William fluffed his fifth shot, Charles placed his hands around his son’s neck and jokingly shook him.

But the duke made it sixth time lucky, to raucous cheers, joking afterwards it had taken “a while” to get his aim in.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge has his shoulders rubbed by Prince Charles
Getty Images

Maj Reid, originally from Liverpool, is at the centre for strengthening treatment before an operation on a long-term ankle injury sustained in a climbing accident.

He said the duke was asking patients about their injuries before he “encouraged” William to take a seat in the wheelchair.

“He wanted to try it and see how difficult it was,” Maj Reid said. “Which it is, as you can see – he needed some help from his dad. He got it on the last attempt.”

William at the rehabilitation centre
Getty Images

DMRC Stanford Hall is part of the overall Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre (DNRC) programme which includes both a defence element and proposals for a National (NHS) facility on the same site.

William, who was patron of the DNRC appeal, attended the official handover of the newly built defence centre to the nation in June 2018.

The prince will later attend a reception to launch the Midlands chapter of the British Asian Trust
PA

Later, Charles and Camilla will visit Leicester city centre to meet stallholders and members of a local women’s charity, attend a performance by local schoolchildren to celebrate the diversity of the city and unveil a commemorative plaque in the new market square.

The prince will then attend a reception to launch the Midlands chapter of the British Asian Trust, in his role as the organisation’s founding patron.

PA

While the duchess, who is president of Royal Voluntary Service (RVS), will visit Leicester General Hospital to take part in the RVS’ Big Trolley Push recruitment campaign, where she will be joined by West End musical star Elaine Paige.

Charles will celebrate craftsmanship when he visits a workshop, said to be the last in Britain producing rattan products, and then he will be joined by wife Camilla for a visit to the Cambridge Satchel Company.

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