William and Kate have unexpected chat with paramedic's father in Bangladesh

Royal public engagements are often unpredictable, throwing up all sorts of unscheduled twists and turns.

So the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took it in their stride today when they found themselves having an unexpected chat on FaceTime with a paramedic's proud father in Bangladesh, reports Telegraph. 

The couple were visiting Newham Ambulance Station in east London to hear how staff had coped during the pandemic.

As they chatted to paramedic Jay Khan, she asked if it was okay to call her father, Abu, in Banglasdesh as he had been  separated from his family since the beginning of lockdown when his mother became sick.

She had soon whipped out her phone and the royals found themselves having a chat with Abu 5,000 miles away.

The Duke, 38, told him: "You must be very proud of your daughter. She's looking forward to seeing you soon."

Buoyed by her success, Miss Khan then called her sister Nasrin and granddad Baharam in the UK, putting them on to the Cambridges.

The Duke told them: "She works very hard and she's looking forward to seeing you soon."

The Duchess, 39, added: "Hopefully it won't be too long before you can all meet up and see each other again."

Eventually, Ms Khan told them they should probably let the royal couple go, to which the Duke laughed: "We can stay here and do some more family chatting if that works," before adding: "Very nice to chat everyone, bye."

The visit came after US television presenter Gayle King revealed that the Duke of Sussex had spoken to both his brother and his father about the damaging claims made to Oprah Winfrey but that the conversations had not been "productive."

The disclosure is said to have made Prince William wary about speaking to him again.

A source told Vanity Fair there was a concern within the family that the Sussexes "want to keep fuelling the soap opera."

"There's a lack of trust on both sides which makes moving forward very hard," one said. 

"William is now worried that anything he says to his brother will be plastered over American TV."

During Thursday's visit, the Cambridges also heard more about the mental health and wellbeing support provided to staff at the Station, including drop-in sessions and wellbeing spaces, alongside some of the wider initiatives provided by the London Ambulance Service including their fleet of Wellbeing Tea Trucks.

Launched in February 2020, the tea trucks travel to hospitals and control centres across the capital each day, serving hot drinks and snacks to ambulance staff and volunteers and offering them the chance to take a moment to pause and refresh. 

The trucks also allow staff who are currently unable to work in patient-facing roles the opportunity to give back to their frontline colleagues. 

The Duke and Duchess  met paramedic Shani Smith who has been helping to run one of the tea trucks over the past year, and heard how she has used her mental health training to provide peer support to her colleagues.

Ms Smith, who has worked for the service for over 20 years, told them it was the worst time she had experienced.

"It's been like one long major incident," she said.

Covering the boroughs of Newham and Waltham Forest, Newham Station forms part of the second busiest station group in the London Ambulance Service having attended over 76,500 calls over the past year.

The Duke is committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the emergency services community, having witnessed first-hand the challenges that emergency responders face on a daily basis during his roles as both an Air Ambulance and RAF Search and Rescue pilot.

Over the last year, the Cambridges and The Royal Foundation have worked to support those working on the frontline of the pandemic, including through the provision of grants to ten leading charities at the heart of mental health and frontline support as part of a bespoke COVID relief fund.

The London Ambulance Service has received £100,000 of funding from NHS Charities Together, of which the couple are joint Patrons, to enable them to continue to run the trucks and  expand their provision in order to meet the needs of crew and volunteers during this challenging time.

The funding has also been used to create isolation packs and food for staff across LAS sites.