Catherine visited Pulborough to mark the 50th anniversary of West Sussex Minibus and helped a 94-year-old passenger board the minibus. She walked to Stella Drewett's front door, greeted her, and assisted her along the garden path and into the vehicle.
Drewett uses the service for her weekly shopping trip and for a lunch held every Wednesday at the Pulborough village hall. She said the lunches meant “one day of not cooking”, and before the princess arrived she joked, “When they said 'It will be a celebrity,' I said 'I don't know any celebrities'.”
Stella Drewett and the route
Drewett, who was 94, arrived from her home before Catherine helped her board. Catherine told her, “Well done.” The exchange came as the visit drew attention to a service that volunteers use to transport elderly people across the area.
West Sussex Minibus has been operating as a rural volunteer transport service for elderly residents. Its use in Pulborough showed how the service has remained part of ordinary routines, from shopping to the Wednesday lunch stop at the village hall.
Alan Jenkins and volunteers
Alan Jenkins said the princess had done “a fantastic job” talking to the service's members. He said the visit was “really to promote what our volunteers do for the slightly older generation”, adding, “She's done a great job and we're so pleased to have her here.”
The visit placed the volunteers and the people who rely on them at the center of the anniversary event. For people using the service, the practical question is not ceremony but continuity: the service runs on volunteers, and the routine trips Drewett described are the reason it matters.
West Sussex Minibus anniversary
The anniversary visit tied the public appearance to a service built around regular local transport. Drewett said the lunch trips gave her “one day of not cooking”, which is a small detail, but one that shows how the minibus fits into weekly life rather than occasional use.
How many elderly people rely on West Sussex Minibus and whether the service needs more volunteers were not stated. The anniversary answer already given by the visit is simpler: the service is still carrying people to shopping and lunch, and Catherine chose to put that work in view in Pulborough.
