CROWDS are beginning to gather to see Her Majesty Queen Camilla ahead of the Royal Maundy Thursday service at Worcester Cathedral this morning.

The Queen will be presenting Maundy Money to 150 people from across the country- including 39 from the Diocese of Worcester.

Crowds began gathering as early as 8am to get a prime spot to catch a glimpse of The Queen.

Among them is avid Worcester Royalist Pam Key, whose commitment to seeing Royal events resulted in her gaining a new friend.

She travelled to London to see the coffin of the late Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 with her friend Sarah Badger, but was told she would have to sleep overnight to see the Monarch.

In a stroke of luck, a lady she talked to in the queue offered for Pam to stay at her home overnight- and she offered again when she returned to London for the King’s coronation eight months later.

Pam told the Observer: “Me and the woman have kept in touch so we have become friends through the Royals.

“The Royal family really brings the country together, it was so lovely to be at the King’s Coronation.

“I am really looking forward to today to see Queen Camilla even closer up.”

The tradition of presenting alms on Maundy Thursday goes back to at least the fourth century and the first record of The Monarch doing it is in 1213.

The service visits a different Cathedral each year and it was last held in Worcester in 1980.

The number of men and women receiving the Maundy Money is 75-equivalent to the Monarch’s age.

The word ‘Maundy’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘Commandment’.

It was on this Thursday, the day before he died at the cross, that Jesus gave his disciples what he described as a new commandment: ‘that you should love one another as I have loved you.’