LEUCHIE House will receive a royal visitor next week.

The Princess Royal will stop off at Leuchie House, near North Berwick, the national respite centre which provides breaks for people with long-term conditions and their families.

Lorraine Hunter, marketing and communications officer at Leuchie House, told the Courier: “The Princess Royal will be launching the Leuchie Forever Fund, a new fundraising initiative for Leuchie of which she is Royal Patron.

“She’ll also present Leuchie House volunteers with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, known as a group MBE and the highest honour a UK group can be awarded.”

It is not the first time Her Royal Highness Princess Anne has visited Leuchie.

Ms Hunter added: “This is the second time she has visited Leuchie.

“The last time was January 2013, when Leuchie had only been running as an independent charity for just over a year.

“Leuchie has obviously developed a great deal since then, so Mairi O’Keefe [Leuchie House CEO] and the team are looking forward to showing her how things have progressed in the past three and a half years.

“Her agreement to be royal patron of the Leuchie Forever Fund, which is intended to put Leuchie on a more secure financial footing, is testament to the value she clearly places on the service Leuchie provides, following her last visit.

“While the Princess Royal is at Leuchie, she’ll meet guests, volunteers, and staff, as well as trustees of the Leuchie Forever Fund.”

Leuchie House was not the only East Lothian building that Princess Anne visited during her last visit to the county, though.

Three years ago, she visited Belhaven Brewery and Queen Margaret University, on the outskirts of Musselburgh.

She started her tour of the county in 2013 with a return visit to Belhaven Brewery, which she first toured back in 1988, to open the company’s new £1m brew house.

A visit to Leuchie House followed for Princess Anne, where she met and chatted with guests, carers, staff and supporters.

Queen Margaret University and the College of Occupational Therapists then welcomed the Princess Royal to celebrate 75 years of occupational therapy education in Scotland.