CAMILLA, the DUCHESS of Cornwall, today (Wednesday, January 28) met staff and users of a charity providing emotional and social support for people with cancer.

The Duchess will take a tour of Maggie’s Newcastle - based at the Freeman Hospital - in her role as president of the charity.

Among those there to meet her were men from the centre’s popular Monday Morning for Men group and NHS colleagues from the Freeman Hospital.

The centre was designed by architect Ted Cullinan of Cullinan Studio who, after visiting existing Maggie’s Centres, chose to create a space which featured strong architectural lines and angles as well as bold masculine colours to specifically appeal to men and encourage them to visit.

Last year, Maggie’s Newcastle saw over 16,000 visits to its Centre of which 6,000 were men. The centre provides a full programme of support including a weekly support group, the Monday Morning for Men group, which has gone from strength-to-strength with membership of the group more than doubling since the Centre opened in May 2013.

Maggie’s Newcastle will also be holding a Living With and Beyond Prostate Cancer course, a new partnership programme with Prostate Cancer UK.

The Duchess also visited Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, in the city’s Ouseburn Valley.

She later joined portrait artist Jonathan Yeo be at the Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery where she enjoyed a tour of an exhibition of his work.