Marbella’s People’s Princess

I’M always saying how you never know whom you are sitting next to in Marbella and I think young student Rowan Litchfield would heartily agree.

Last week at the United Nationalities of Marbella Summit, much to her delight, she found herself chatting and teaching sign language to none other than HRH Marie Louise Von Schönburg, Princess of Prussia.

Rowan’s surprise was understandable. Who’d expect to be sitting in a school hall, at a community gathering and find yourself next to a princess with a family lineage worthy of any history lesson: greatgranddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia and cousin to Queen Sofia, Spain’s ‘Queen Mother.’

Princess Marie Louise first came to Marbella with her Prince Charming (well, Count in this case) over 40 years ago and is living the fairytale, for which she couldn’t be more thankful.

She lives in paradise, loves her family and makes good use of her time.

Although the magazines might indicate otherwise, that time is rarely frivolous. Princess Marie Louise has always paid attention to the ‘behind the scenes,’ the needs of the people and was responsible for establishing UNICEF in Spain, dedicating over 20 years to consolidating the organisation.

Today she is President of ‘Concordia’ the only AIDS charity for the whole of the Costa del Sol. Inspired by Lady Di, the first member of royalty to publicly support ‘untouchable’ subjects, Marie Louise continues in Diana’s footsteps, only using her title to draw attention to the cause.

Laude School in San Pedro is one of the few schools that have welcomed Concordia to give a talk to the students on AIDS and the HIV virus.

Princess Marie Louise hopes more will follow suit as our children are more vulnerable than parents may care to think, with the figures in Andalucia being the highest in Spain.

Even using someone else’s razor, someone who may be unaware that they’re carrying the virus, can be potentially deadly, so awareness is key.

Prevention is always better than cure; getting tested if in any doubt is paramount, as is our support so Concordia can continue its work, so as many people as possible also get to live the fairytale and have their ‘happily ever after.’

www.concordiamarbella.com  – Phone-in assistance: 952 78 59 97 www.rtv marbellanow.com