Brolly good! KATE'S PRIDE PROJECT

The duchess’ groundbreaking childhood centre is changing lives

It’s been a decade in the making – 10 years of reading up on research, talking to experts and listening to personal stories of struggle and heartbreak. While we’ve seen Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge getting on with official royal engagements and raising her three children, behind the scenes she has been devoting her spare time to a cause close to her heart, and now she’s using her position of privilege to do something about it.

Kate, 39, has announced that she’s set up a centre dedicated to raising awareness of the impact early childhood has on people’s lives. It’s a subject she was passionate about even before having kids of her own, and that she believes is so important, it’s the “social equivalent of climate change”.

Since marrying into the royal family 10 years ago, Kate has worked tirelessly to educate herself about how the first few years of life can shape a person’s future. She has also held in-depth discussions with experts about what can be done to help children – and their parents – in those crucial years and heard first-hand stories of people who’ve suffered trauma in their lives that can often be traced back to their upbringing.

When she launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood last week, Kate spoke about how becoming involved with various charities in her role as a senior royal opened her eyes not only to issues people were facing, but the causes.