Kate has been ‘out and about’ with her family amid cancer battle

The Princess of Wales has been out and about more with her family in recent weeks, the Mail understands, as palace officials said they have been inundated with ‘tens of thousands’ of get-well-soon cards after her cancer diagnosis was revealed.

While the possibility of Kate venturing out with family will be taken as a positive sign by many, Kensington Palace has stressed that she still needs time and space to recover.

In March, Kate shared an emotional video message revealing she had started preventative chemotherapy, which was met with an outpouring of support and well wishes from the British public. 

The princess said she was withdrawing from public life to concentrate on her recovery, as well as protecting her young family. But the deluge of support continued.

The palace’s correspondence team is now said to have been ‘so touched’ by the love and affection shown to Kate, 42, throughout her cancer battle.

The volume of correspondence has at times been difficult for the team to cope with, but staff do aim to reply to all the writers.

All letters to members of the Royal Family are dealt with by the Court Post Office. In a normal week the Palace can expect up to 1,000 letters, but what they have experienced since March has significantly surpassed that.

It comes a week after Kate was revealed as the ‘driving force’ behind a new report calling on businesses to introduce more family-friendly working practices.

Her Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood has unveiled a major new report which argues that investing in early childhood could generate more than £45.5 billion for the national economy each year.

Downing Street, as well as senior ministers in the departments of health and education, have already been briefed about its findings – although palace officials are at pains to point out that it is not a political campaign.

A Kensington Palace spokesman also stressed that the news should not be seen as Kate, 42, returning to work after undergoing major abdominal surgery and revealing she was undergoing ‘preventative chemotherapy’ for cancer.

She has not undertaken public engagements at all this year.

But they confirmed that she has been across every aspect of the report from home, despite her illness.

Her spokesman said: ‘The work of The Prince and Princess’ projects is ‘always on’…early childhood is a huge priority for The Princess and so she has been kept fully updated throughout the development of the Taskforce’s work and she has seen the report.’

A senior royal aide added: ‘The Princess of Wales was the driving force behind the business task force. 

‘She has been kept up to date since the inception of the task force and she has read the report and been briefed on it.

‘This is a clear commitment she has made that throughout her life of public service that this will be focus. 

‘That will continue when she returns to work. But we have been really clear that she needs the space and the privacy to recover right now. She will return to work when she has had the green light from doctors.’

‘The princess is not expected to return to work until it’s cleared by her medical team,’ the Kensington Palace spokesman said.