Princess Eugenie has opened up about her experience of scoliosis surgery as a child amid her ongoing support for patients with spinal injuries.

The 35-year-old niece of the King is patron of Horatio’s Garden, a charity that creates peaceful garden spaces for spinal injury patients, and visited the charity’s garden at Salisbury District Hospital this week.

In an interview with Britain’s Telegraph newspaper, she reflected on her spinal surgery at age 12, and expressed strong support for the charity’s work.

“Horatio’s Garden’s mission is to reach every spinal injuries unit in the UK. I’m happy to be on that journey with them. It needs to happen,” she said.

The princess, the younger daughter of Prince Andrew and his former wife Sarah, Duchess of York, is 12th in line to the throne.

She recalled her own recovery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, where she spent 10 days on her back after surgeons inserted titanium rods into her spine to correct curvature caused by scoliosis.

“I couldn’t get out of bed or do anything for myself”, Eugenie told the Telegraph, adding that she felt “very embarrassed” ahead of the operation and later struggled with the emotional impact of post-surgery care.

It was four months before she was able to return to school.

She also spoke about the emotional impact of surgery, recalling how it was her mother who helped her see her surgical scar as a “badge of honour”.

“She’d turn me around and say, ‘my daughter is superhuman, you’ve got to check out her scar’,” she said.

Princess Eugenie famously had her wedding dress designed to show off her surgery scar. Photo: Getty

At her 2018 wedding to marketing executive Jack Brooksbank, Eugenie wore a dress that revealed her scar to raise awareness of scoliosis.

Eugenie said she often received messages from anxious parents whose children are about to have spinal surgery. She makes a point of offering encouragement and reassurance to help them through the experience.

“I tell them not to feel ashamed, not just of the scar but of the whole experience; bed pans, the lot,” she said.

Now a working mother of two, Eugenie juggles charity work alongside her role at international gallery Hauser & Wirth and said she and sister Beatrice felt a strong sense of duty to help others because of guidance from their grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II.

“My mum always taught me that giving back to others is the most important thing in life,” she said.

“Bea and I feel very strongly about this.

“My grandmother’s sense of duty was also instilled from a young age; we watched my parents, my granny and other family members working very hard.”

-with AAP