Duchess has a lot of fun with the royal Wii (From Swindon Advertiser)

Duchess has a lot of fun with the royal Wii

10:00pm Wednesday 27th January 2010 in

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PENSIONERS took on royalty in a virtual computer game when the Duchess of Cornwall visited a Swindon nursing home.

Camilla toured the Church View care home, in Stratton, yesterday, meeting staff and residents.

It was her second attempt to visit the care home after she was forced to abandon the first outing in December due to an outbreak of the norovirus there.

She was given a posy of yellow roses by resident Vera Hunt and residents showed off their new computer system, which includes internet access, a DVD player and Nintendo Wii.

Camilla played a Wii Nintendo 10-pin bowling game with residents Denis Gleeson, 83, and David Rose, 73.

And she knocked down nine out of the 10 pins on her first go.

When she was initially asked if she wanted to try the game she said: “I’m hopeless at anything like that.”

But Mr Gleeson said afterwards: “I’m hopeless at it, but she looked quite good – I’d hate to have to play her if she takes it seriously.”

The computer system is designed to entertain residents, but also to allow them to make contact with their family through the internet.

Daredevil Mr Gleeson helped to raise money for the new equipment by doing a sponsored microlite flight last October.

He said: “She was very nice, very pleasant and makes people feel quite comfortable.

“I was a bit apprehensive this morning, but I needn’t have been at all.”

Netta Porter, 78, who has been at the home two years, said: “She was lovely, very nice and relaxed.

“You can talk to her like a normal person – she just asked me my name and how long I had been here.”

Resident Stuart Wilmott, 76, and his wife Julie, 68, who volunteers at the home, both met the duchess.

Mr Wilmott said: “It’s the first time I have every met anybody from the royal family.

“It was something very nice and it will go down in my memory.

“I got a photograph taken and I will frame it and have it up in my room.”

Mrs Wilmott, from Stratton, said: “It was lovely, it really was.

“She was very nice. I was quite impressed with her actually.

“It was a great pleasure and a great honour.”

Church View manager Jo Butler said: “She’s obviously very personally involved, very realistic and very aware of people’s needs and their lives and it was just the way she spent so much time with everybody.

“We feel honoured that A, she came and B, that she was personally interested in what we’re doing.”