Asda works faints during royal visit from Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall

David Child10 July 2020

This is the moment Prince Charles' visit to an Asda distribution centre prompted one overwhelmed member of staff to pass out in front of the royal.

The Prince of Wales and the Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall were taking part in a tour of the facility in Bristol to thank the retailers' staff for their work throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

During the visit, the Prince was introduced to one member of staff who began lurching from side-to-side while talking to the royal, before collapsing to the ground shortly afterwards.

Fortunately, the man appeared to be unharmed by his fall, with workers and bystanders quick to respond to the situation as a visibly concerned Prince of Wales stood nearby.

After being given an indication that the man, by now in the recovery position, seemed to be coming round, Charles then moved on to speak to other members of staff.

The pair then spoke again minutes later, with the man seemingly fully recovered from his collapse.

The incident came as the royal couple met some of the 700 workers at the Asda centre in Bristol, as well as drivers and those based at nearby stores.

The event took place in a marquee outside the site's main building, with people keeping two metres apart to maintain social distancing.

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, thanked staff at the Asda centre in Bristol for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic 
POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Staff gathered at the facility spoke of how they had returned from retirement, worked extra hours and different shift patterns, and had postponed holidays to cope with increased demand at supermarkets amid the Covid-19 crisis.

Chris Tilly, 48, general manager of the distribution centre, said work had been “really, really challenging” and paid tribute to Asda's employees.

“We’ve had a lot of support from colleagues right across the business working extra hours, extra shifts to keep the shelves filled for customers,” Mr Tilly said.

“I think it is fantastic that the prince and duchess have taken the time out to come to the distribution centre and meet colleagues.

“Every single colleague that they saw they thanked for what they had done during the last 14 weeks, which I was truly humbled by.

“They were really interested in what the colleagues did within Asda, how long they had worked for us and just wanted to know how they had been doing while working through the pandemic.”

At the end of the visit, Charles and Camilla unveiled a plaque marking the day.

Charles told staff: “Thank you, thank you very much everybody. You deserve a stiff drink after all this.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in