Meeting His Royal Highness Prince Charles and Her Royal Highness Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall.

In October 2015 I received a formal invitation from the Honourable Colin Barnett MLA, Premier of Western Australia and his wife Mrs Lyn Barnett to attend a Beachside Barbeque in celebration of the 67th Birthday of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales with my husband Andrew and my Medical Assistance Dog (DAD) Winston.

The event was to be held on the Main Lawn of the Cottesloe Civic Centre Gardens, Napier Street Cottesloe on Saturday 14th November 2015 from 6pm7.30pm.

Her Royal Highness Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall was very interested in meeting us. Her Royal Highness Camilla is the patron of Medical Detection Dogs a registered charity in England and Wales the charity has 2 arms Cancer Detection and Medical Alert Assistance Dogs including (DADs) Sharon Scott our PFD Director of Training helped Medical Detection Dogs to get started.

The 14th November arrived, and we were excited about meeting the Royal couple, however the night before the world received some devastating news about a deadly terrorist attack in Paris and 127 innocent people lost their lives.

Prince Charles was going to cancel his birthday celebrations however he felt that would disappoint too many people so the celebration went ahead. There were 600 people invited to attend the Prince’s birthday and about two dozen children who share their birthdays with the prince were also invited to join the festivities, along with Governor Kerry Sanderson, Opposition Leader Mark McGowan, writer Ben Elton and his wife Sophie Gare, and businessman Warwick Hemsley to name a few. Emergency services personnel including nurses, paramedics, and firefighters were also invited.

We enjoyed some great Western Australian wines and canapés. The BBQ food was delicious we enjoyed Mackerel from Broome,  Beef Tenderloin Skewers from the Stirling Ranges and Chicken Sausages from Mt Barker.  The prince had a huge red velvet birthday cake topped with a chocolate sail.

There was a host of entertainers including balloon artists and face painters. We all got to briefly meet and talk to Her Royal Highness Camilla about PFD and she loved Winston and Oscar.  We talked about the benefits that having a PFD medical assistance dog gives their owners and also their family and carers.

Andrew and Winston got to briefly meet Prince Charles as well and he said he thought PFD was a worthy cause and he loved Winston. Prince Charles said he thought Winston was a very clever dog when we told him how Winston helps me and my family.  I have members of my family who also have diabetes and Winston alerts to them too. 

The Prince had a firework display for his birthday as well as a natural light display right over the Indian Ocean at Cottesloe Beach. Andrew, Winston and I got caught in the heavy down pour and we had to find shelter underneath big beach umbrellas with some of the party guests and photographers everyone loved Winston and they asked lots of questions so we stood in the rain under the umbrellas talking to them all about Winston, his job and PFD. 

When the rain had started to ease a bit we decided we better start for home. As we were leaving the chef us and asked about Winston, so we stood chatting to him while the rain started to clear. The chef loved Winston and he gave me a sausage to take home for Winston’s tea. It was a great night despite the weather and it was a great honour to meet Prince Charles and Her Royal Highness Camilla.