Royal walkabouts are child's play for Sophie

A of DELIGHTED Duchess Edinburgh received a warm welcome when she dropped in on staff and patients at an eye hospital in Nepal yesterday.

- Emily Ferguson

And Sophie had even more to smile about at a maternity unit where she said she'd love to be left holding the babies.

The duchess is the global ambassador for the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. People at the eye hospital in the city of Kirtipur lined up to greet her where she returned the traditional welcome with her hands clasped together.

Sophie, on a six-day tour of the country with her husband Prince Edward, spent the day focusing on the causes closest to her heart, with engagements highlighting eye health, support for victims of sexual violence and maternal care.

And at Bhaktapur hospital, where she met mothers and their newborns, she told one of the mums: "I want to hold them all!" Sophie was taken on a tour of the maternity, post-op and labour wards at the hospital in the capital, Kathmandu.