The Japan Times - Princess Catherine says nature her 'sanctuary' amid cancer recovery

Catherine, also known as Kate, who said last September that she had finished chemotherapy, used the first of her series of "Mother Nature" videos to urge people to reconnect with the world around them.

Her voiceover for her "Spring" video is set to a soundtrack of piano music interspersed with sounds from the natural world from the beating of birds' wings to the sound of the wind and waves.

The video images posted on X on Monday feature rural and coastal landscapes as well as trees in blossom in city parks and streets.

"Over the past year nature has been my sanctuary," Catherine said in the video.

Nature also enabled us to understand "the importance of balance and the importance of renewal and resilience", she added, without making any direct reference to her own cancer recovery.

Acclaiming spring as the season of "rebirth of hope and new beginnings", Catherine added: "Just as nature revives and renews, so too can we."

Catherine, 43, announced she had been diagnosed with an unspecified cancer and was having chemotherapy in March 2024.

The shock announcement came just weeks after officials revealed in February the same year that King Charles III, 76, had also been diagnosed with cancer.

The video and its focus on the power of nature to heal and nurture returns to the theme Catherine chose in September when she announced she had completed her chemotherapy.

That video featured the future queen with William and their three children -- George, 11, Charlotte, 10, and Louis, seven -- in woods and at a beach in eastern England near their country home after an "incredibly tough" few months.

Catherine, whose main work has focused on early years child development, has been making a gradual return to public life and revealed in January she is now in remission.

K.Hashimoto--JT