Queen Consort Camilla "firmly believes" that volunteers are the "backbone" of the country.
The 75-year-old royal - who assumed the title of Her Majesty when her husband King Charles acceded to the throne upon the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth in September - has teamed up with domestic abuse charity SafeLives and has been "haunted" by the stories of victims but thanked volunteers from the "bottom of [her] heart" for their work.
She told Good Housekeeping: "The work of SafeLives is extremely close to my heart because I have had the privilege of meeting so many women – and men – who live in an atmosphere of permanent fear. Their stories still haunt me. Over and over again, I have heard that what survivors want, above all, is for the wall of silence to be broken. SafeLives is founded on a wonderfully simple principle: the ‘best friend’ rule. That is, if your best friend were experiencing domestic abuse, what would you want for her? You would want her to receive help as early and as consistently as possible… Seventeen years on, the ‘best friend’ rule still applies – and makes all the difference in the world to more than 75,000 adults and 95,000 children each year. I firmly believe that volunteers are the backbone of this country and, often unseen and unsung, truly hold our communities together… I would like to thank our country’s volunteers, from the bottom of my heart, for the hope they give to each one of us."
The Queen Consort is the cover star of the Christmas 2022 and New Year 2023 Good Housekeeping UK and the issue also features interviews with The Princess of Wales, The Princess Royal, The Countess of Wessex, Princess Alexandra and The Duchess of Gloucester.
The Christmas 2022 and New Year 2023 issue is on sale from Wednesday 7 December.
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/january-issue
Cover image courtesy of © Hugo Burnand / Telegraph Media Group Limited 2022
www.hugofoto.com/@hugoburnand (Instagram)
