Prince William has spoken about his time working as an air ambulance pilot and how an incident in Essex left him emotional.
Speaking during an audio walking tour recorded for Apple, the future king described how he was “taking home people’s trauma, people’s sadness” and it was affecting him by making him sad despite a happy home and work life.
He has spoken in the past about how working for the East Anglian Air Ambulance affected his mental health, but the audio recording, made while walking around the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, reveals how the incidents still live with him.
William recounted being introduced to the unnamed person who recovered, but not fully, following an incident dealt with by the duke and his former crew from.
William, who served for two years as an air ambulance helicopter pilot, said about dealing with traumatic moments with the EAAA: “Talking about those jobs definitely helped, sharing them with the team, and ultimately, in one case, meeting the family and the patient involved who made a recovery, albeit not a full recovery, but made a recovery – that definitely helped.”
With his voice breaking, he adds: “Because – it even makes me quite emotional now – when they come in and say ‘thank you’, and, ‘Here he is. He’s okay.'”
He added: “…it still even affects me now. But I think, as a human being, when you see someone in such dire circumstances, basically at death’s door, you can’t help but not be affected by that.”
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Prince William also discussed attending a child who had been hit by a car.
It is thought William was referring to Bobby Hughes, a five-year-old that was hit by a learner driver while playing outside his home in Essex in 2017.
His mother Carly Hughes, told The Mail on Sunday William was part of the crew which saved Bobby.
She said the prince had kept in touch and offered his support.
In the interview with Apple The Duke of Cambridge revealed a Tina Turner hit brings back treasured memories of his mother singing it at the “top of her voice” with her sons as she drove them to school.
In the candid chat, William said he still “secretly” likes the Turner song The Best, one of a number Diana would play to ease the anxiety as she took him and the Duke of Sussex back to school, thought to be Ludgrove in Berkshire.
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