HER Majesty Queen Camilla remains patron of Truro-based disaster relief charity ShelterBox following a major review of more than 1,000 patronages.

The review, conducted by the Royal Household, follows the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and coincides with the first anniversary of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

“Our volunteers, supporters, and staff will be brimming with pride that Her Majesty The Queen continues to honour us with her patronage,” says ShelterBox chief executive, Sanj Srikanthan. “It comes at a particularly poignant time for our charity as we approach our 25th anniversary.

“With more people displaced around the world than ever before, and the need for shelter growing all the time, we’re looking ahead to the next 25 years, and it means so much to our community that Her Majesty continues to have faith and support in what we do. 

ShelterBox has supported almost three million people in around 100 countries since it was founded by a Cornish Rotary club in 2000.

The charity specialises in emergency shelter aid, and no longer provides aid in green boxes, instead devising a combination of aid packaged in different ways to suit what people need. 

That can mean tents, tarpaulins and essential items like solar lights, mosquito nets, and water filters; but it might also mean building concrete bases in places that repeatedly flood like in Pakistan and Syria; providing hurricane strapping to make timber shelters more robust in the Philippines; using iron frames and fireproof insulation for shelters in Yemen, and wooden frame Sahelian tents to withstand local climates in Burkina Faso.

The former Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were first introduced to ShelterBox in 2006, learning during an official visit to Pakistan about the charity’s work supporting families who had lost their homes in the Kashmiri earthquake.

Her Majesty has been a keen supporter of ShelterBox ever since, including hosting receptions at Clarence House for the charity and featuring them prominently at the humanitarian reception at Buckingham Palace in 2023.

She has been welcomed to ShelterBox’s headquarters several times, including in 2017 when she cut a cake to mark her 70th birthday. The Queen’s well-known love of reading has also seen her support the ShelterBox Book Club by writing a foreword for Tamesis Street, a short story told by 30 authors about a fictional climate disaster in London. 

ShelterBox is currently responding to the conflict in Gaza and has a response team in Malawi where thousands of people have been affected by severe flooding.  

“Often people don’t have time to recover from one disaster before the next one hits, so our commitment stands firm – listening to communities and providing emergency shelter to people uprooted from their homes,” said Mr Srikanthan.