A cancer diagnosis weighs heavily on any family, adding fear and uncertainty to the discomfort a sufferer might already be experiencing. It is tough on the patient and on their loved ones, too.
Those difficulties are multiplied for the royal family, who must mix private anxiety with public duty. In announcing the King’s diagnosis and treatment, without going into specifics, Buckingham Palace showed yet another way in which the royals have modernised.
King Charles and Queen Camilla leave The London Clinic after his treatment for an enlarged prostate.Credit: AP
“The King is grateful to his medical team for their swift intervention, which was made possible thanks to his recent hospital procedure,” the palace statement said. “His majesty has chosen to share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer.”
This frankness represents a stark departure from how the royal family has handled previous cancer diagnoses. Earlier generations would never have dreamed of being so open about any medical condition, let alone something as foreboding as a tumour.
In September 1951 George VI, a heavy smoker, had his left lung removed for what was euphemistically referred to as “structural abnormalities”. In reality, it was a carcinoma. Yet, the king’s doctors withheld his diagnosis from the public, the medical profession – and even the king himself.
Although he seemed to be recovering from the procedure, he died suddenly five months later, in February 1952. As George VI had suffered from vascular disease, it was assumed at the time this had caused “coronary thrombosis”. Since then, it has been speculated that this was the result of complications from his cancer spreading.
King George VI (right) walking with Sir Donald Bradman.Credit:
Queen Elizabeth, similarly, dealt with cancer in private. In his posthumous biography of the late Queen’s mother in 2009, William Shawcross revealed that she had been treated for the disease twice. In 1966 she had a tumour removed from her colon. At the time, Clarence House had said only that she had undergone abdominal surgery to remove an obstruction. In 1984, she had another operation, to remove a tumour from her breast. The official line then was that she had been in hospital for “tests”. She recovered from both procedures and lived until 2002, when she was 101.
How King Charles’ public cancer battle will differ from George VI’s secret diagnosis
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06.02.2024
A cancer diagnosis weighs heavily on any family, adding fear and uncertainty to the discomfort a sufferer might already be experiencing. It is tough on the patient and on their loved ones, too.
Those difficulties are multiplied for the royal family, who must mix private anxiety with public duty. In announcing the King’s diagnosis and treatment, without going into specifics, Buckingham Palace showed yet another way in which the royals have modernised.
King Charles and Queen Camilla leave The London Clinic after his treatment for an enlarged prostate.Credit: AP
“The King is grateful to........
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