The Duchess of York will be in Huddersfield this afternoon – stopping off at a town centre charity shop.

The Duchess, formerly Sarah Ferguson, will visit Kirkwood Hospice at Dalton to hear how staff are planning to celebrate the charity’s 30th anniversary.

She will meet staff, volunteers and patients and hear about the work the hospice does.

After her visit to the hospice the Duchess, a passionate supporter of the British Heart Foundation (BHF), will head into Huddersfield.

She will meet staff and volunteers at the BHF shop in New Street. The Examiner understands the shop will be closed to the public for about an hour while the Duchess is inside.

After her charity shop stop, the Duchess will go to the University of Huddersfield to meet students at the School of Art, Design and Architecture.

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The Duchess, who is visiting professor of philanthrepreneurship at the university, will judge devices designed by students to help improve the heart health of women.

Ideas include a bra that measures heart rate, a stylish bracelet that gives early warning signs of a heart attack and a necklace worn by pregnant women that can relay vital information to GPs.

The Duchess will head a panel of judges – including heart patients and a medical expert – that will hear presentations and inspect prototypes from the five two-student teams who spent several weeks researching and creating portfolios of ideas for devices that could monitor the heart health of women.

The Duchess is spearheading a BHF campaign to raise awareness of women and heart disease, so she suggested to university vice-chancellor Prof Bob Cryan that this would be an ideal theme for the latest design challenge.

“I thought this was an excellent idea, giving our talented students an opportunity to come up with ideas that could make a real difference to the heart health of thousands of women,” said Prof Cryan. “The Duchess’s design briefs always prove stimulating and this latest one is a real exercise in impact-based research and problem solving.