The Duchess of Cornwall has sent a message of support to people living with cancer during “this extremely challenging time”.

Camilla marked World Cancer Day in her role as president of Maggie’s which provides free psychological, practical and emotional support to cancer patients and their families at centres across the country.

She also thanked those working to create a “future without cancer”.

The duchess said: “As the proud President of Maggie’s, I wanted to mark World Cancer Day by sending my very best wishes to all those who are living with cancer at this extremely challenging time.

“You are very much in my thoughts and prayers today.

“I should also like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, those who are working to create a future without cancer.

“You give us hope that, together, we will be able to defeat this devastating disease.”

Maggie’s chief executive Dame Laura Lee described the impact the coronavirus outbreak had had on those living with cancer.

Dame Laura said: “The added complexity of having cancer during a pandemic is enormous, with delayed or cancelled treatments, the difficulty of having to shield and the loneliness and anxieties that come with it.”

But she added: “Whatever comes your way, we’re always here with you.”

The charity rapidly switched its expert support online and on the phone, and worked to keep its 24 centres in the UK open following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Maggie’s Centres were the vision of writer, designer and landscape architect Maggie Keswick Jencks, who was inspired by her own experience of cancer to develop a new approach to cancer care.

She died in 1995, one year before the first centre in Edinburgh opened.