Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Happy Mum, Happy Baby, the podcast. Today

we're recording from a nursery in Stockwell, London, where I've just finished an engagement

with the Duchess of Cambridge. The Duchess is on the tour around the UK meeting parents

and caregivers, actually not just her UK-wide survey, five questions for the under five,

which look into our hopes for the future generations. To take part in the survey, please go to

fivebeacquestions.org.uk, but first it's my absolute pleasure and you can tell I'm nervous

because I'm talking so fast, but it's my absolute pleasure and honour to welcome the Duchess

of Cambridge. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Don't worry, I'm equally as nervous, so don't worry.

Well, let's talk about today because we're an nursery with the London Early Years Foundation

and we've spoken to parents about the importance of early years. You've been so busy working

in early years for a very long time. Yes, it has been quite a journey and actually I'm

excited now to be actually talking about this, I suppose a bit more publicly, but since

I've got married, I've been really looking into this as a sort of a huge passion and going

out and listening to what makes people take and actually the things that unify people,

but also the struggles that people are facing. Right in the early days, meeting lots of people

who are struggling with addiction, homelessness, abuse and things like that, you really get moved

by some of the challenges that people are facing and it's really heartbreaking to hear

and the more you sort of look into everybody's experiences, actually so much of those the

hardest social challenges really get traced right back to the early years of somebody's

life and you hear that time and a time again across the nation, across the world, you hear

the really sad reality that actually what we experience in our childhood really has a

lifelong impact on our future health and happiness. So I suppose that has really driven my

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