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Eugenie, 28, has told how she battled crippling scoliosis as a child.
She also told of her fear of having corrective surgery on her spine at the age of 12.
Eugenie said: “In 2002, when I was 12 years old, I was diagnosed with scoliosis and told that I would need corrective surgery.
“This was, of course, a scary prospect for a 12-year-old. I can still vividly remember how nervous I felt in the days and weeks before the operation.”
She credits the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) for helping her though the eight hour operation that involved having eight-inch titanium rods into each side of her spine.
Eugenie said: “After three days in intensive care, I spent a week on a ward and six days in a wheelchair, but I was walking again after that.”
After speaking of how grateful she was for the support she was offered, Princess Eugenie appealed for donations for the hospital, particularly the Stanmore site, where she was treated, and talks about the people she met during her stay there.
She said: “I met a young cancer patient who had had a bone removed from his leg and replaced with a ‘bionic’ prosthesis which grows at the same rate as his leg.
“This amazing technology was invented by specialists at the RNOH in 2003 and is now used all over the world.
“But I was also reminded of the rather run-down condition of the hospital. There is a very striking disparity between the quality of the RNOH’s service and the quality of the buildings from which its staff operate. Anyone who visits the Stanmore site can see immediately why a new hospital is needed so urgently.”
She added: “Without the care I received at the RNOH I wouldn’t look the way I do now; my back would be hunched over. And I wouldn’t be able to talk about scoliosis the way I now do, and help other children who come to me with the same problem.”
Eugenie has rarely spoken about her fight with the condition, but did post a picture of her spinal X-ray onto Instagram in May.
It was during that month that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, the exact location that Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank, 32, will marry on October 12.
Recent reports have claimed Eugenie and Jack had planned their wedding for a long time, but delayed it because of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Despite both being grandchildren of the Queen, as the son of the eldest son of Her Majesty, Prince Harry has a higher rank than his first cousin.
Harry is sixth in the line of succession, while Princess Eugenie of York is ninth.
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