On 5 February 2026, staff and trustees from Lepra were thrilled to have been invited to meet their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their visit to Dedham, in north Essex.
It was an honour to meet Lepra’s Patron, King Charles III and to represent the 102-year-old organisation, for the first time since Lepra’s patronage was passed from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II in May 2024.
The event was held in the Sun Inn public house, in the picturesque village of Dedham, which is a short journey from Lepra’s headquarters in Colchester. Lepra was joined by around a dozen other organisations, charities and good causes who are based in the area.
During the visit, King Charles spoke with CEO Jimmy Innes and the team with an informed interest of our cause, demonstrating great empathy for the vulnerable communities Lepra support in India and Bangladesh. The King was reportedly surprised to learn that India represents around 60% of the global cases of leprosy and that as many as 4 million people may be living undiagnosed with the disease.
During their conversation, King Charles asked Jimmy Innes a particularly poignant question, about the barriers to treatment and the possibility of elimination. Mirroring the theme for World Leprosy Day 2026 in January ‘Leprosy is curable, the real challenge is stigma’, Jimmy explained that prejudice and discrimination remained one of the greatest challenges in the early detection and treatment for people affected. A fact that King Charles seemed to immediately recognise.
Lepra trustee Sampa Bhasin thanked Her Majesty the Queen for the Royal Family’s continued patronage, expressing the importance of their support and solidarity for the people living with the impact of neglected tropical diseases such as leprosy and lymphatic filariasis.
It was very fulfilling to see the genuine interest the King had in our cause and the stigma faced by so many people living with the consequences of diseases like leprosy.
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