As a volunteer photographer for the Butterwick Hospice, Stockton on Tees I was asked to be the official photographer the day Sophie, Countess of Wessex, visited the hospice to commemorate the 30th anniversary of it's founding.
I took this photograph of her as she was talking to a terminally ill patient who sadly died days after this photograph was taken. That is why the background is blurred.
Photographer: brian swales