The Prince of Wales chatted to staff and patients during a visit to a hospice and day care centre in Cambridge.

The Prince spent an hour at Brookfields, which is part of Lifespan Healthcare NHS Trust.

At the Arthur Rank House Hospice, he chatted to patients, including Jim Short, 81, a former porter at Trinity College, Cambridge, where the Prince studied.

At the hospice day centre, he helped Helen Hensby, 40, from Ely, create a leaded tree on a window.

Duxford visit

"He was very nice and very pleasant," she said.

"I think he quite enjoyed it because he was smiling and I could see through his mannerisms that he found it enjoyable."

The Prince, patron of the British Geriatrics Society, talked to elderly men and women at the neighbouring Davison House and therapy centre.

He was accompanied on his visit by the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Michael Marshall.

The Prince went on to the Imperial War Museum in Duxford to join former US President George Bush Senior.