Tell me about … Princess Beatrice’s charities

While she is not a working member of the Royal Family, Princess Beatrice of York still undertakes work with charities and charitable organisations. She does this in her spare time, outside of her work, which currently is described as ‘in business’ by The Duke of York’s website.

Beatrice’s general focus in her charity work is on children and education. The Princess is dyslexic herself, a learning disability with which approximately 10% of the population suffer.

Princess Beatrice of York does charity work alongside her full-time work in business. Picture by Stephen Lock / i-Images

She therefore became patron of Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre in 2013, saying she had ‘benefited hugely’ from them and that she ‘would not have been able to achieve my academic results without the support I received’. It was here that Beatrice found help to get through her school education, enabling her to achieve her eight GCSE’s and three A-Levels in history, drama and film studies; she then went on to study History and the History of Ideas at Goldsmiths University in London, graduating with a 2:1.

Sarah, Duchess of York, founded Children in Crisis in 1993, when she was still married to Prince Andrew. The charity aims to help educate children and women from some of the poorest countries, and Beatrice, being interested in education and welfare, became a global ambassador for the organisation in 2007.

In April 2010, the Princess became the first member of the Royal Family to complete the London Marathon. She ran with friends to raise money as part of ‘Team Caterpillar’, which supported a number of charities, and

Princess Beatrice (left) was the first Royal to run the London Marathon in 2010 (Hayley Kidd)

Beatrice has even founded her own organisation, The Big Change Charitable Trust. With the help of six friends, the trust identifies and supports charitable projects throughout the UK that improve the lives of young people, once more showing the Princess’ interest in helping young people.

Always keen for a sporting challenge it seems, Beatrice and the other founders climbed Mont Blanc in 2012, as The Big Change’s first fundraising project called ‘The Big Climb’. She also recently reached the summit of Mount Etna with Sir Richard Branson for charity.

Alongside her mother and sister, Princess Eugenie, Beatrice is a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, a role she took on in June 2016. Beatrice has, however, supported the Duchess’ patronage of the charity for a while, often accompanying her to events.

Other organisations that the Princess is associated with are: the Berkshire Community Foundation; Broomwood African Education Foundation (which has built a school in Gondar, Ethiopia for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children); the English National Ballet School, Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice and The Sick Kids Friends Foundation (helping children in Scottish hospitals be children before patients).

Her namesakes, The York Theatre Royal and The York Musical Society, also invited Beatrice to be their patrons, and she visited the theatre in July.

While not working full-time as a Royal, Beatrice has undertaken work on behalf of the government, which included a visit to Germany in 2014 with Princess Eugenie to promote trade with Britain.

Royals leave the National Service of Thanksgiving to mark her 90th birthday at St.Paul’s Cathedral. Picture by Stephen Lock / i-Images

The Princess of York also supports her father’s work, championing entrepreneurs, and occasionally supports The Queen at receptions at Buckingham Palace, and sometimes at garden parties. She was most recently seen at The Queen’s Young Leaders Award ceremony in the summer.

Of course, as 7th in line to the throne, Beatrice is always at Trooping the Colour each year, as a family celebration, and at church services when relevant e.g. to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee. She joined Prince Andrew and Eugenie for the Patron’s lunch for Her Majesty’s 90th birthday in June.

You can follow Princess Beatrice on twitter here.