Among those in attendance was Robin Tomkins, the Frinton businessman who generously funded the day centre in memory of his wife, Joan. Robin remembers:

“My wife Joan died of cancer in 1985 and she had quite difficult last six months. I was very lucky I had the resources to give her the backup that was necessary. My sister in law was a trained nurse and Joan had a wonderful GP who called twice a day. We also had the support of a brilliant Macmillan nurse.

“My wife was anxious to die at home and we had the necessary resources that made her comfortable.

“I realised how difficult it was for people less well resourced to deal with the situation. After Joan’s death, I wished to do something to help less fortunate people who had been on a similar journey.

“I got in touch with the Macmillan nurse and said, what could I do to help people? She said what they really wanted at the hospice was a day centre where people could go to while they were having problems and also to give support to families.

Diana, Princess of Wales, spent half an hour inside the Joan Tomkins day centre chatting to patients, volunteers and staff. 

Pearl Wheat (pictured), who attended the day centre once a week, presented the royal visitor with a selection of poems about life and death written by patients and relatives.

After spending time inside the day centre, the people’s princess emerged to meet the crowd lining the driveway up to the hospice inpatient unit, before going inside to meet patients and staff.

Nurse John Garbett (pictured) recalls:

“I was in the nursing station with all the girls around me and Princess Diana came in and made a beeline straight for me. 

"She came up to me and said ‘good morning’, and I said good morning and she said ‘how do you keep all this lot under control’ and I said with great difficulty ma’am, with great difficulty.”