Britain's Kate puts charity feelers out

Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is making discreet visits to several charities to decide which ones she wants to support, St James's Palace said Sunday. Since their April 29 wedding and tour of Canada and California, Kate and her husband Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, have kept a low profile. William, second in line to the throne, has been knuckling down to work as a search and rescue helicopter pilot in northeast Wales. Meanwhile Catherine has begun paying personal visits to organisations in recent days and plans to familiarise herself with a variety of good causes before choosing next year which ones to back. "The duchess is using the next few months to get to know a number of charitable and other causes better, so she can make well-informed decisions about her future role," said a St James's Palace spokesman. "The duchess plans to meet a wide range of people and make private visits. "We are not giving a running commentary of the causes the duchess is looking at. Her interests remain broad at the moment." William, a Royal Air Force flight lieutenant based on the island of Anglesey, needs to put in plenty of hours over the coming months in order to become a captain. A spokesman said the couple, both aged 29, want to avoid overshadowing Queen Elizabeth II in the run-up to 2012, the 85-year-old monarch's diamond jubilee year.