Princess Diana Essay Research Paper Throughout her

Princess Diana Essay, Research Paper

Throughout her life all eyes were always on Princess Diana. Millions

came to identify with her and, when she died, they felt as though they

have lost a best friend. More than a year after the sudden end of her

privileged but imperfect life, Princess Diana’s charity work still

motivates many others to donate their own time in hopes to help the

lives of others. Through the vigorous fund raising and campaigning,

Princess Diana has greatly effected the lives of the patients she has

reached out to.

The honorable Diana Frances Spencer weighed in at seven pounds,

twelve ounces when she was born on July 1, 1961. Her father

announced at the time of her birth, she was nothing less than a

“perfect physical specimen.” She was the third surviving child of her

parents. In 1967 her parents, Johnnie and Frances separated, then in

1969 their divorce became final. Johnnie Spencer won custody of their

four children(Brennan19).

On February 24, 1981, Princess Diana’s life changed forever.

Her engagement to Prince Charles, the heir to the British

throne, was announced. They were married in Saint Paul’s Cathedral on

July 29, 1981. The ceremony was internationally televised. People all

over the world tuned into the beautiful day when Princess Diana was

married into one of the most powerful families in the world(Encarta).

The young Princess of Wales unofficially came of age when she

was twenty- six years old, married for nearly six years, and

the mother of two young sons. That moment was a turning point in her

life because she decided to become involved with AIDS, a subject

shunned by “the great and the good” of British society. Overnight,

Princess Diana changed from a young mum who liked to shop or listen to

pop songs on her Walkman, to a mature young woman who had created a

role for herself(Davies260).

The metamorphosis came the day in April 1987 when Diana opened

Britain’s first purpose-built ward for AIDS sufferers, at London’s

Middlesex Hospital. Many were shocked at the fact that she didn’t wear

any protective clothing(Davies260). At

that time the average Briton knew very little about AIDS. Some

believed it could be caught and passed on by touch, kissing, or even

hugging someone who was infected. The revelation that a royal, like

Princess Diana, the mother of two young sons, one the heir to the

throne, had taken such an enormous risk with a deadly disease shocked

many people(Brennan88).

Many people wondered, and still to this day wonder if it was

advisable for the Princess of Wales to get involved. Buckingham Palace

was torn. Some of the Queen’s advisers totally opposed the young

princess becoming involved with AIDS, a taboo subject never discussed

in polite company or at British upper-class dinner parties. In 1987,

many Britons condemned it as “that gay disease” which only affected

“homosexuals and drug addicts,” two groups which received very little

sympathy from the chattering classes, many of whom believed the victims

were reaping the harvest they themselves had sown. The advisors argued

strongly that the public would be unsympathetic and warned that

becoming associated with AIDS charities could harm her position as the

future Queen. They also feared it could weaken public sympathy for the

Royal Family(Davies261). Despite much criticism, Diana was

determined. She contacted many charities to produce studies showing

how innocent babies and mothers who has nothing whatsoever to do with

homosexuality or drug addiction had caught the disease(Davies261).

The Palace bureaucracy reluctantly capitulated Diana’s

determined arguments and pleas and officially met the senior

members of the charity. The Department of Health and the Charity

Commissioners had already investigated the National AIDS Trust and

reported that the charity was efficient and well run. It seemed a

highly reputable charity, one in which a member of the Royal Family

could become involved without risk of scandal by the trustees. Only

then did Buckingham Palace agree that Diana could go ahead(Brennan88).

Five years later, in 1992, Buckingham Palace adopted a

different attitude. Press spokesman Dickie Arbiter explained:

“It’s abundantly clear that Princess Diana is determined to break down

prejudice about HIV. Nobody told her to adopt this cause. Everything

she does is spontaneous and nothing is premeditated. It was her own

decision to show someone infected with it(Davies262).” This quote

proves the kind heartiness of Princess Diana. It shows the only reason

she did the community service was to help others. The point that must

not be forgotten is that Diana does all this knowing that people are

misjudging her, but she’s got the sense and compassion to follow her

own inner beliefs. Diana came f

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