Sarah Ferguson Says She Feels 'Incredibly Grateful' on 65th Birthday After 'Extraordinary Year'

Sarah Ferguson is feeling the love on her birthday this year.

The Duchess of York turned 65 on Oct. 15, and reflected on how she was feeling about the special occasion in a new post on Instagram.

"Thank you for all of your wonderful birthday wishes! I’m feeling incredibly grateful to be here every day, to smell the flowers, to read and write and to be able to see my daughters and my grandchildren," the Duchess of York, who is popularly known as Fergie, wrote on social media.

"It has been an extraordinary, full year — a year of recovery and of growth — and I just feel so lucky. Thank you again to all of you who made it so and who took the time to send me birthday wishes," she wrote alongside a red heart emoji. 

The update came with a new photo of the Duchess serving a pink frosted cupcake on a plate with a smile. It seemed to be snapped during her visit to the charity Prevent Breast Cancer at The Nightingale Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital on Oct. 9, the same day she was announced as the organization's patron.

The Duchess of York has indeed had a full year. In January, Fergie shared that she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer, in what marked her second cancer diagnosis in less than a year. In June 2023, a representative for the Duchess of York said she was diagnosed with breast cancer and successfully underwent a single mastectomy. 

The malignant melanoma diagnosis came following a post-operative analysis of a mole removed during reconstructive surgery after her mastectomy. 

In March, a source told PEOPLE that the Duchess of York was "very relieved" to learn that her skin cancer had not spread. The author and advocate told friends that she had surgery around the edges of the site of the mole and lymph nodes.  

Fergie has since used her platform to advocate for the importance of early cancer detection through screenings, and told PEOPLE on Sept. 25 that she was feeling well.  

"I think that you never really get rid of the worry about health. For every sort of melanoma, you never really know where it is. You look at everything and you’re certainly more aware," the Duchess of York said at the launch of the Youth Impact Council at New York Climate Week.

"It’s been an extraordinary journey to have gone through a mastectomy, and then you have to keep having checks, and then you think you’re going to get it again. It’s a lot of very fragile mind work … My health is really good now, but you have to be a bit more cognitive and not push yourself too much, which I do," she said.

The Duchess of York's proud new positions as Founding Ambassador for the YIC and patron of Prevent Breast Cancer aren't the only roles she's celebrating, as she's going to be a grandmother again! Fergie and her ex-husband Prince Andrew share adult daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and Buckingham Palace announced on Oct. 1 that Princess Beatrice is pregnant.

The palace said that Princess Beatrice's new baby is due to arrive in early spring 2025, and the child will be the second for Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. The couple are already parents to daughter Sienna, 3, and Christopher Woolf, 8, Edo's son from a previous relationship, and the baby on the way will make them a family of five.

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While Princess Beatrice, 36, doesn't maintain a public social media presence, Princess Eugenie does, and she shouted her mother's doting grandmother role in a birthday tribute to her on Instagram.

"Happy birthday to my beautiful mumma. So proud of the Grannie you are, the mum you are and the woman you are," Eugenie wrote on Oct. 15 along with a carousel of photos. "You're an inspiration and our endless chats bring me so much happiness and incredible support."

Princess Eugenie's post included action shots of Fergie in "Grannie" mode, seemingly showing her in a garden with Princess Eugenie's 1-year-old son, Ernest. Eugenie, 34, shares sons Ernest and August, 3, with her husband Jack Brooksbank, and the montage also included a previously unseen shot of her with her mother and sister.