It was during a ski trip in Switzerland, that Diana learned an important lesson. While on the trip Diana received news that there had been an accident and one of her close friends, Major Hugh Lindsey, had been killed. Even worse, he had left behind a young wife who was several months pregnant. Upon her arrival in England, Diana took the widow by the hand and comforted her for days on end. She learned that she could help others in pain by being with them, taking them by the hand, and listening to their problems.
Born with an extraordinary gift of compassion, Diana always knew what to say, and she always spoke from the heart. It was because of her own unhappy life, that she "found an affinity" with people rejected by society. Gary Aldridge, an HIV-positive charity worker said,"When you shook her hand, she zapped you with a friendly tonic." In all, Diana aided more than 100 charities. Her "work", took her into cancer wards, homeless shelters, and splintered countries littered with land mines.
Bridget Barford, a cleaning woman at the Spencer family's Althrop estate, was amazed when Diana showed up unannounced to visit Bridget's son Shaun, who was dying of cystic fibrosis. "I walked in, and she was sitting on my son's bed", Bridget recalls, "It made his world." Diana once told The New Yorker, "When you discover you can give joy to people like that, there is nothing quite like it."
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