Prince William says witnessing 'so much death' as an air ambulance pilot made him see the world as a 'darker place'

• Prince William spoke to frontline first responders about how witnessing death and bereavement can leave the world feeling a "slightly depressed, darker, blacker place."
• The Duke drew on his own experience working for the air ambulance between 2015 and 2017, in which time he previously said he witnessed tragedies "that cannot be unseen."
• The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Royal Foundation helps fund an emotional wellbeing and bereavement support line for key workers.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, opened up about the mental impact of witnessing intense trauma during his spell as an air ambulance pilot while in conversation with frontline workers.

The Duke was joined by his wife Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, for the video call about bereavement support with medics, counselors, and first responders.

"Something that I noticed from my brief spell flying the air ambulance with the team is, when you see so much death and so much bereavement, it does impact how you see the world," William said in a clip shared by the Daily Mail.

"It impacts your own life and your own family life because it is always there."

The duke worked for the East Anglian Air Ambulance from 2015 until 2017, following a four-year career as a helicopter pilot for Britain's Royal Air Force.

According to The Telegraph, William was told on the video call by first responders that witnessing so much death made you view things in a different light and fear that all those around you are going to die.

He responded, saying: "That is what really worries me about the front line staff at the moment is that you are so under the cosh at the moment and so pressurized.

"You're so drawn into it, which everyone is, it is only natural that would happen.

"But that's what I think a lot of the public don't understand, that when you're surrounded by that level of intense trauma and sadness and bereavement.

"It really does, it stays with you, at home it stays with you for weeks on end, doesn't it, and you see the world in a much more, slightly depressed, darker, blacker place."

The Duke and Duchess' Royal Foundation has partnered with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the Department of Health and Social Care to help fund Hospice UK's Just 'B' support line, supporting British healthcare workers and social care workers, carers, and emergency services personnel.

It's not the first time the Duke has opened up about the impact of his time with the air ambulance on his mental health.

On leaving the ambulance service in 2017, he wrote an article in the local Eastern Daily Press newspaper, in which he said he was "proud" of his work, but had witnessed tragedies "that cannot be unseen."

Speaking at the This Can Happen conference at the O2 in London in 2018, he said one particular incident involving a child "took him over the edge" adding that having children of his own "brought the horror home."

"I worked several times on very traumatic jobs involving children, and after I had my own children, I think the relation between the job and the personal life was what really took me over the edge, and I started feeling things that I have never felt before, and I got very sad and very down about this particular family."