By Tim Saunders on
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, visited one of Britain’s best-known children’s charities last week to unveil a special sculpture.
The wife of Prince Charles attended the unveiling at the Barnardo's headquarters in Barkingside, Essex, to reveal a bust of Queen Elizabeth and meet with several new celebrity ambassadors for the charity, including former Bond girl Rosamund Pike, Heather Small, Goodness Gracious Me star Nina Wadia, Lynda Bellingham and Andy Serkis' wife, actress Lorraine Ashbourne.
The Duchess, who became president of the organization in December 2007, also toured the charity’s campus – which once housed 1,300 young girls in 64 cottages at Dr Barnardo’s Girls’ Village Home – and met with staff.
The organization was set up in 1867 by Thomas Barnardo to help children, young people and their families over the long term to overcome the most severe disadvantages – problems like abuse, homelessness and poverty – and to tackle the challenges of disability. By the time he died in 1905, the organization had grown to run 96 homes and care for over 8,000 children. Today, over 110,000 children benefit from the organization’s help.
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