There’s been some talk in recent weeks about King Charles, cancer and his chemotherapy. Some people theorized that his chemo treatments were done, but that’s false. If you were paying attention throughout the summer and early autumn, Charles continued to travel to London for treatments, largely under the radar. I wondered why Buckingham Palace wasn’t trying to score PR points about it – “king comes to London for treatment, rather than making his doctors come to him” – but then I realized that the palace doesn’t want people to focus too much on Charles’s treatment or the fact that he’s still receiving chemotherapy, eight months after his diagnosis. Well, there was no way to avoid the conversation given Charles and Camilla’s upcoming trip to Australia and Samoa. They’ll be out of England for 11 days… which means Charles will skip one of his weekly treatments.
The King’s doctors are allowing him to ‘pause’ his cancer treatment in order to fly to Australia for a high-profile royal visit next week. The 75-year-old monarch will undertake a significant official visit beginning on October 18, taking in Sydney and Canberra, immediately followed by a State Visit to Samoa in the South Pacific where he will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
The Mail understands that His Majesty will continue with his ongoing cancer treatment right up until he flies but that his doctors are happy for it to be briefly stopped while he is away. The King will then pick up with his treatment cycle as soon as he returns to the UK.
Charles,75, was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of the disease in February following prostate surgery and has been receiving weekly treatment ever since. However the news that the King intends to ‘squeeze in’ a 30,000 mile, 11-day door-to-door trip in-between treatments is both good news in terms of his health – and also emphasises the commitment to duty he has shown since he was first diagnosed. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
King and his wife, Queen Camilla, are embarking on a packed schedule with up to ten engagements a day between them during their royal visit – and have only one ‘down day’ of rest. Sources stress, however, their programme has been organised in close consultation with his doctors and is ‘mindful’ of his health. Engagements have been organised to ‘prioritise’ his continued recovery. His entourage will, as always, include a travelling doctor – standard practice for the head of state.
The long-awaited trip is hugely significant as it is his first visit to a Realm, of which he is head of state, since becoming King and his first CHOGM as Head of the Commonwealth.
I keep going back and forth on whether we’re being told the truth about how Charles is really doing. The message from BP is, in so many words, that chemo has knocked Charles on his ass but he’s optimistic and so are his doctors. And yet, the message from Prince William’s office is that Charles is at death’s door and William will be king any day now. So… I don’t know. My guess is that this overseas trip is going to be really difficult for both Charles and Camilla and it will probably be one of the last “major trips” of Charles’s reign.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.