Fresh from her recent appearance on the US sitcom Friends, Sarah, Duchess of York, spent yesterday with another Monika. This Ms Monika Kubasik (20), a Polish cancer victim, was celebrating the fitting of her new artificial limb at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Ms Kubasik came to Ireland for the £4,000 operation after the duchess met her at the Mountain Haven Centre in Poland and heard that her dream was to come to this country. The duchess said: "When I heard Monika needed a new leg, you just plug me in and we get it organised.
"Children our are future," she said. "I think that we've got to nurture them, help them, make their life easier, give them dignity and respect and listen to them and try to understand." She enjoyed spending time with children "because we can learn so much from them and their bravery".
Fiona Elliot (15) from Kilcock, who has been wheelchair-bound since a car accident in February, said the duchess was "really nice and friendly. She said to me never to give up fighting".
The duchess took a shine to Sarah Mulhall (5) from Carrickmines, Dublin, who was visiting her brother, Mark "Sparky" (12), who is recovering from a road accident. The two Sarahs pulled at each other's hair, and the older one began counting out her age to 38 on her fingers.
The Polish girl stayed with showjumper Mr Robert Splaine and his wife Eileen in Cork, before being invited back last month for the operation.
Ms Kubasik said she wanted to come here after seeing the movie Far and Away. "I like everything about Ireland," she said, "the beer, the songs, the seaside, the Cliffs of Moher . . . and the men."
