Kate Middleton makes rare cancer comment while speaking with public on Christmas Day

remarked this week about how relatable going through cancer is for so many people while making a rare comment about her battle with the disease over the last year.

“The amount of people who have written this year is extraordinary and I think cancer just really does resonate with so many families,” the Princess of Wales told a health care worker. She was speaking to the public in Sandringham after the royal family left their Christmas Day church service.

The royals always spend Christmas at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.

The health care worker who spoke to the princess, who was identified as Rachel Anvil of Cambridge’s Royal Papworth Hospital, according to the New York Post, called Kate an “inspiration” to cancer patients for the way she handled her own cancer battle.

Anvil noted that she had started her career in a cancer unit, and added that having someone “so influential” be open about her own struggle was helpful to others dealing with the disease.