Kate Middleton delivered her first public speech today (19 March) at a children’s hospice in East Anglia.

The Duchess of Cambridge was greeted with a warm round of applause as she took to the podium dressed in a blue Reiss dress.

The 30-year-old royal said she was “enormously proud” to be royal patron of the The Treehouse hospice in Ipswich, which provides support for terminally-ill children and their families. She said she was “only sorry that William could not be here.” The prince is currently on a tour of duty of the Falkland Islands.

She earlier toured the facilities and met staff members and children there.

Kate was word perfect in her first public address, delivering it at a steady pace and eliciting laughs and applause from the audience. She is understood to have been practising for some months, although it is not known whether she hired a speech coach.

The reception from Stylist readers who watched our live feed was certainly positive - here are just some of the tweets we received:

@StylistMagazine Kate Middleton looked so glamorous, and her speech was really touching. What a lovely lady!

@StylistMagazine she looked lovely and spoke very eloquently.

Watching K-Middy’s first speech @StylistMagazine She’s doing just great…

@StylistMagazine She was brilliant. Thanks for bringing us this. I urged her along but she was word perfect in any case. Well done her.

Kate Middleton's first public speech