The duchess joined fellow patron Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Metcalfe in Coronation Street, on a visit to the Nightingale Centre.
The actor introduced the duchess to the charity when they appeared together as panellists on ITV’s Loose Women programme and discussed their own breast cancer experiences.
During her visit, the duchess spoke with patient Ellen Alred about her own decision to have a mastectomy.
She told the 44-year-old, from Saddleworth in Greater Manchester: “I’m sitting here with a mastectomy and I know exactly the feeling.”
Months after her breast cancer diagnosis the duchess learned she also had a malignant melanoma.
After treatment, she was later given the all-clear.
Dynevor was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, at the same time as her character was battling the illness on screen.
Breast cancers are diagnosed and treated at the Nightingale Centre – also a base for Prevent Breast Cancer – by staff working for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
