Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall the patron, president and a member of numerous charities and organisations. Since 1994, she has taken action on osteoporosis, earning honours and awards. She has also raised awareness in areas including rape and sexual abuse, literacy, animal welfare and poverty. Camilla Rosemary Shand was born at King's College Hospital, London, on 17 July 1947. She grew up in The Laines – an 18th-century country house in Plumpton, East Sussex – and a three-storey house in South Kensington, her family's second home. Her parents were British Army officer turned businessman Major Bruce Shand (1917–2006) and his wife, Rosalind ("née" Cubitt; 1921–1994).
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall later met the Queen, for the first time since the relationship was made public, at the 60th birthday party of the former King of Greece, Constantine II. This meeting was seen as an apparent seal of approval by the Queen on Charles and Camilla's relationship. After a series of appearances at public and private venues, the Queen invited Camilla to her Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. She sat in the royal box behind the Queen for one of the concerts at Buckingham Palace. Although Camilla maintained her residence, Ray Mill House, which she purchased in 1995, near Lacock in Wiltshire,