A volunteer who was invited to an event by Princess Kate herself was in awe of the Royal Family after seeing them up close.

Liv Bowditch wrote to Princess Kate after hearing of her cancer diagnosis (Image: Liv Bowditch / Getty Images)

A woman was invited to Princess Kate’s special annual Christmas service and she was in awe of the Royal Family up close.

Liv Bowditch, 19, volunteers for a charity called From Me To You Letters – a group which writes letters to cancer patients to help brighten their day.

After hearing of Kate’s diagnosis, Liv wrote to her – but she didn’t expect what would happen next.

She said: “I usually start my letters with ‘dear friend’ – you can talk about anything in the letters really, such as what films you’ve watched, what’s going on in your life, I quite like to talk about my dog who often does stupid things and it makes for funny anecdotes.

“You write to hopefully brighten their day and take their mind off of the process of potentially undergoing chemotherapy or any sort of procedures they might be going through.

“I wrote to Princess Kate when it was announced that she was undergoing treatment for cancer.”

Prince William also attended the service (Image: Getty Images / Liv Bowditch)

Not only did Liv get a response from the Royal Family, she also found herself at Royal Carols: Together at Christmas service, held on December 6 at Westminster Abbey as one of 1,600 guests.

“I wrote to her, mainly to check if she was okay, and also to say it would be incredible if she could become like a patron of this charity or have some sort of involvement in light of the cancer diagnosis,” Liv explained.

“And in response, she invited me to the service. I was shocked when she invited me.

“I wasn’t expecting her to invite me at all. It was so thoughtful of her to do that.”

Liv said the service was “lovely” and said that everyone invited had given back to their communities in some way.

She felt the warmth of the family who were at the service, along with so many other people from all walks of life.

She added: “I think it’s very easy to distance yourself from the Royal Family because they’re often people we see on our TV screens, but actually being at the service really brings back the fact that they are just people and they go through the same struggles that we do.

“I didn’t meet any of them, but the royals were sat directly opposite us.”

Liv said the royals were sat exactly opposite her (Image: Getty Images )

Liv said it was “incredible” to see Prince William, Princess Kate and their children George, Charlotte and Louis.

“I think it was so funny actually,” she said. “There was Louis who was fidgeting and Kate kind of saying to him like ‘stop fidgeting’.

“And I saw the three kids sat between William and Kate, and Beatrice was there too.

“It was so nice to see them as a family. And actually, I think it reminds you that they are just a family like everyone else.

“I think people tend to accuse the Royal Family of perhaps being slightly scripted. But actually, it just reminds you that they are obviously just humans.

“And the kids are just kids at the end of the day. They’re just like any other children.”