Kate's light touch

Messages of love and hope at annual carol service after months of cancer treatment

- SASKIA ROWLANDS, RUSSELL MYERS

THE Princess of Wales lit up Westminster Abbey as she returned to public life at her carol concert.

Kate told guests: "Love is the light that shines bright, even in our darkest times." Nobody, least of all the Princess herself, could have predicted the challenges 2024 would bring.

But as the year draws to a close, she was her usual vibrant self at her annual Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey.

Smiling warmly as she greeted and chatted to guests, there was no hint of the months of worry and treatment following March's cancer diagnosis.

But as she told one of the guest performers, pop star Paloma Faith: "I didn't know this time last year it was going to be the year I've just had."

Joining Kate, 42, on her first major public appearance since finishing chemotherapy in September were her family- Prince William, 41, and their children George, 11, Charlotte, nine, and Louis, six. Each of the children brought a note to post on a kindness tree at the Abbey.