Queen Camilla gives King Charles cancer update saying he’s ‘doing very well’ as he undergoes treatment
QUEEN Camilla has given an update on King Charles’s cancer – saying he’s ‘doing very well’ as he undergoes treatment.
Camilla visited the Royal United Hospitals in Bath this morning to open the new Dyson Cancer Centre there.
She met several patients who are undergoing chemotherapy at the centre.
Macmillan Cancer Support worker Suzy Moon asked after Charles during Camilla’s visit.
When Moon asked “Is he OK?”, Camilla replied: “Yes, he is doing very well.”
Charles is currently taking his end-of-summer holiday at the Balmoral Castle estate in Aberdeenshire.
On Saturday, Charles was seen smiling at a boy’s paper crown at a flower show.
Charles, 75, took note of eight-year-old Oliver Keith’s creation at the annual Summer Flower Show of the Royal Horticultural Society Aberdeen.
BRAVE CHARLES
The King’s cancer ordeal began in January when he revealed he needed a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate.
He decided to allow the public to know what he was going through, which resulted in a huge outpouring of sympathy.
Brave Charles was touched by the public reaction but also significantly buoyed when it was revealed the NHS website received 11 times more daily visits from men with similar concerns.
But then his condition would take a turn for the worse.
Charles was due to spend two nights in the London Clinic — where Kate was also being treated — so when he spent a third night in care, people started to become concerned.
Those worries were realised when tests revealed cancer.
But rather than hide this devastating news from the public he decided that following the supportive reaction to his prostate diagnosis he would allow it to be made public.
A carefully constructed plan inspired by Operation Bubble which protected the late Queen from Covid-19 was thrown into action.
He would have weekly treatment in London and factor in vital periods of rest time at Sandringham, Highgrove and Windsor.
But his health plan was thrown into turmoil when Prince Harry announced he would jet from Los Angeles to see his father.
While the King delayed his helicopter flight from Buckingham Palace to Sandringham, his wayward son was given just 30 minutes of his company at Clarence House.
Plans were in place to avoid the King contacting a secondary infection and Harry flying 5,000 miles on a jet was not ideal.
Aides prevented Harry, 39, joining his father at Sandringham fearing “we’d never get rid of him” and he needed to reduce his social contact while undergoing cancer treatment.
During this time a Freedom of Information request revealed the Department for Culture and Media had begun procurement for the King’s potential funeral — although sources say this is not unusual.
Suggestions that William had been lined up as a potential Prince Regent if the King was unable to carry out the position have been denied by Buckingham Palace.
But the King was withdrawn from all public duty for 103 days although he continued reading government red boxes.
The decision to postpone his public facing role was made as a “precautionary measure” because of the King’s diminished immune response to other diseases.
The Royal Household copied Covid-style protocols — or tiers imposed by the Government during the pandemic — to minimise secondary infection such as seasonal cold or flu.
A source said: “We had to minimise potential risk from other people, not because he couldn’t do the job.”
But as winter turned into spring and weather became warmer it meant they could relax the Covid-style tiers.
This was demonstrated when the King emerged from the Easter Sunday service and was greeted by 60 well-wishers at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Just days earlier, the monarch and his team had received news that the treatment had gone better than anyone could have expected.
One insider said: “He was raring to go after the positive results and didn’t want to hang around any longer”.
It meant the King told aides that a trip to Australia, seen as the most important tour a monarch will ever take, must go ahead in the autumn, as first revealed by The Sun.
In May, his public comeback began at London’s University College Hospital MacMillan Cancer Centre where he told patients he was having treatment later that day and confessed in an off-script moment he had lost his sense of taste.
But Covid-style tiers remained in place and he was restricted to the amount of people he could be with.
A similar “tier” achieved was attending D-Day commemorations in June when the King had treatment the day before the Portsmouth ceremony.
He then travelled to France but avoided the gathering of world leaders because the event often overran by several hours and instead attended a short service with British D-Day veterans.
A source said: “It wasn’t like he was totally broken and nor are we totally out of the woods yet as treatment continues.
“Treatment has gone better than anyone would have thought even in their most optimistic thoughts.”
Such was the progress that the King was now able to host around 50 people indoors at places including Buckingham Palace.
A Prince’s Trust bash there on May 22, the day of the general election announcement, was one event where numbers of guests had to be kept low.
At some events in Jersey and Guernsey in July he met as many as a 100.
But he still managed to carry out 464 engagements in a year and more than 105,000 invited guests had walked through the doors of Royal palaces.
There has often been a suggestion the King could be “grumpy” but a source added: “When battling illness, what he has been able to do gives him a sense of great positivity and encouragement.
“Having a great positive frame of mind is as important as having the best medical expertise for the physical side of his symptoms.
“It’s been a great boost for morale and recovery that he is able to complete the scale and nature of events he is able to undertake.”
Around 27,000 messages and get well soon cards had been sent to the King and Princess of Wales, and he told then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak some of the “wonderful messages and cards” have “reduced me to tears”.
Despite the King’s positivity and drive to return to work and tour Australia, his aides and doctors remain “protective” about how many hours a day he can carry out public-facing duties.
While famous for being a “workaholic” with Harry and William once saying they would find him in his office working during the night, the King has been made to restrict public face-to-face interaction to only five hours a day.
This is expected to be the same when he goes to Australia with Camilla in October where the tour is expected to have engagements on around seven days.
Sources explain rest and recuperation are built into the King’s usually hectic schedule so he is not exhausted.
One explained: “Rest and recovery has to be taken as seriously a priority as government duty, public duty, so we build in rest periods and try to limit the number of hours a day that are public-facing duties.”
But, this has not meant he has stopped working outside the five hours of public roles. One said: “In terms of getting through red boxes people assume it takes longer, but it’s quite the opposite, it has brought him more time at his desk which he loves.”
After his enlarged prostate diagnosis in January The Sun revealed Camilla had urged Charles to “slow down”.
And backed by his wife, the King has agreed to have at least a light snack at lunchtimes after spending his whole life skipping the meal.
He even visited Balmoral the night before the castle opened to tourists for the first time this summer.
And, in July, he was seen marching up and down the corridors at Buckingham Palace to check everything was in the right place ahead of the East Wing opening to visitors.
But of course the major reason the King is making a speedy recovery is the “pioneering non-intrusive treatment” which is continuing.
Experts explain that in the past two or three years there has been a “transformation” and “quiet revolution” in cancer treatment for all patients.
When previously, there would be a “Blitzkrieg” approach to treating cancer the disease is now hit with “precision guided weapons”, sources close to the treatment explained.
It has been noted by those close to the King that he has not suffered any notable hair loss.
Losing his hair was a natural concern for the King, even if he is thinning on top.
And a further boost for the King is the treatment has not resulted in any particularly debilitating side effects.
A source said: “He is not pioneering in any way as it’s available for any cancer patient.
“The treatments are highly evolved and sophisticated in ways previous treatments were not.”
But one downside was the King was prevented from appearing at Trooping the Colour birthday celebrations in June on his horse Noble who was instead ridden by Princess Anne.
Claims the King was “furious” and “felt it was a failure” have been downplayed by the Palace who insist he “accepted the reality of the situation”.
In truth, if it was not the cancer then the prostate procedure would have stopped him riding at Trooping, it is said.
Amid the recovery his personal doctor Michael Dixon, previously slated and accused of backing controversial homeopathy, has been credited with aiding his recovery with a programme of complementary treatment.
The King will now spend summer months at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate and be surrounded by family, including the Princess of Wales who is continuing her own cancer journey.
He will keep a positive frame of mind tending his garden, taking long walks, painting and fishing.
And he will be ready and raring to go for Australia in October where his recovery could be even further down the line.
Piers Morgan on King Charles' cancer
BY PIERS MORGAN
‘Cancer didn’t bring me to my knees,’ said Hollywood star Michael Douglas after he survived oral cancer a few years ago, ‘it brought me
to my feet.’
I thought of that inspiring quote when I saw King Charles making his
comeback public engagement on Tuesday.
He almost danced out of his state Bentley, beaming happily, and
sporting his favourite Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur pattern tie.
I suspect the tie wasn’t an accidental fashion statement: the T-Rex was known as the king of the dinosaurs, and one of the toughest, most durable creatures in history, only rendered extinct by a massive asteroid hitting Planet Earth.
He almost danced out of his state Bentley, beaming happily, and
sporting his favourite Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur pattern tie.
I suspect the tie wasn’t an accidental fashion statement: the T-Rex was known as the king of the dinosaurs, and one of the toughest, most durable creatures in history, only rendered extinct by a massive asteroid hitting Planet Earth.
And it was perfectly fitting that he chose London’s world-famous
Macmillan Cancer Centre to reappear on the public stage, given that
he himself has spent the past few months being treated for cancer.
The first part of the visit was very much royal business as usual, as he posed for photographers, waved at waiting crowds, and went inside to greet cheering staff.
But it was when he met fellow cancer sufferers upstairs as they sat
in armchairs for their chemotherapy treatment that I realised
something profound had changed in our new Monarch.
I’ve been at numerous events with Charles over the years and his
interactions with the public have always been reasonably perfunctory.
He’ll exchange a quick word, or joke, maybe shake a hand or pose for
a photo, then swiftly move on.
He rarely stays with one person for more than 30 seconds or so.
But this looked and felt very different.
Cancer is the greatest of levellers; it doesn’t care how rich,
famous, old, or privileged you are, it can strike anyone at any time.
And that has given the King and his people shared a raw and visceral
experience that he’s never had before now.
He sat with 63-year-old Lesley Woodbridge, in for her second round of chemo, and they had a lengthy conversation.
“How are YOU?” she asked, after he’d asked her about her own condition.
“Not too bad,” he replied. “It’s always a bit of a shock isn’t it,
when they tell you?”
She nodded knowingly.
Then, as Charles got up to move on a few minutes later, he suddenly
took her hand in his and held it for several long seconds.
It wasn’t his normal handshake, with his right hand.
He used his left hand, which seemed way more personal and intimate.