Inside story of how King

Naeem Zia

1 year ago

Inside story of how King Charles bounced back from cancer

Transcript

00:00Six months ago King Charles revealed he had cancer, a devastating diagnosis for a

00:05man in his 70s and it came just 16 months into his reign. But today while he

00:10has not had the all-clear and is not out of the woods yet there is great

00:15optimism. This is the inside story on how the King was put back together again and

00:19it's a story of Covid-style restrictions, pioneering cancer treatment and even him

00:24choosing to eat lunch for the first time in his life. And as one source close to

00:29Charles tells me, the sun wasn't shining in February but it is now. It's worth

00:33going back to those dark, dark days where the sun wasn't shining in February where

00:37the King was taken to hospital and he said that he had cancer. This came right

00:41at the same time as the Princess of Wales was also in hospital. There were

00:45many fears for the King. Would he last? How much longer would he

00:49survive? Would we need a Prince Regent? Would his reign be doomed? Immediately

00:54the royal household sprung into action. He was pulled from duty, he was pulled

00:58from frontline duty, not because he couldn't do the job but because there

01:02were fears about getting secondary infections. He was having cancer

01:05treatment so he needed to be kept away from people just in case he caught any

01:09other infections or any other diseases. Now this meant he spent a lot of time in

01:13the countryside. He would be up in Sandringham and they would only come in

01:17for his weekly cancer treatment. Camilla even said to him he had to slow down and

01:22Charles is known as a workaholic. Despite being pulled from public duty for many

01:27weeks he actually managed to spend more time working by having all this spare

01:32time to read his red government boxes. But around this time the aides were

01:37sent into a bit of a flap because Prince Harry, his son, jetted over from the

01:41United States to the UK to see his father. This was seen as a gesture at the

01:45time of Harry wanting to be close to the King. He wanted to be close to his

01:49father and really see how he was. But Harry was restricted for 30 minutes. The

01:54reason behind this was because of the restrictions that the royal household

01:59and the doctors had put in place. They didn't want someone flying 5,000 miles

02:04from the United States carrying all sorts of infections, all sorts of

02:07possible infections and being close to the King when his health levels were low

02:12due to his cancer treatment. In fact he was even banned from joining his father

02:16at Sandringham as one aide said to me they feared they would never get rid of

02:20him. In the early weeks COVID style tiers were introduced to ease the King

02:25back to work. We all remember during the COVID era where we were told we could

02:31only socialise with small groups of people and that is exactly what they did

02:34with the King. They gradually increased the number of groups, they gradually

02:39changed the tiers to allow the King to meet wider public and larger members of

02:44the royal household. It is also similar to what was carried out by the royal

02:48household for the late Queen which was called Operation Bubble during the

02:52COVID restrictions where there was only about two dozen people at any

02:56stage that were allowed to be anywhere near to reduce the risk of infection. So

03:01as the treatment worked and as the risk of infection diminished the COVID style

03:06tiers changed. This meant in April he actually got out to meet lots of members

03:11of the public at Easter Sunday at Windsor Castle. I think I counted around

03:1660 members of public that the King was allowed to greet, shake hands with and

03:20talk and this was a huge change. Other elements of the COVID style tiers which

03:24changes for instance when he got to meet the Prime Minister, he got to spend time

03:27with Rishi Sunak where they had a nice chat and he got to spend more time

03:31outside of London staying at other properties opposed to only Sandringham

03:36in Norfolk. By mid-April by this time that he had actually gone out and met

03:41members of the public the King was so confident his treatment was going well

03:44that he ordered aides to supercharge his diary and he demanded that the

03:48Australia tour that will go ahead this October will happen. It was the King that

03:53said he would return to duty and it was the King that said he was well enough to

03:56go to Australia. After the success of the Easter Sunday event the King returned to

04:03frontline duty. However while he has been out working meeting members of the

04:08public there has been an extra restriction placed on the King where he

04:11can only meet members of the public for five hours a day and again this is just

04:16one of a number of the COVID level style tiers that are put in place for his

04:20own health and safety. This restriction to five hours a day will continue while

04:24he is on tour in Australia in October. During the summer the King also got to

04:29travel to France. Now this was a surprise to many people because it involved

04:34international travel and meeting people from another country. Interestingly he

04:38actually had his weekly cancer treatment the day before he set off to

04:43the beaches in France. The royal household did actually change his

04:48schedule while he was in France to deal with the fact that he was still

04:52undergoing cancer. He didn't attend the final event on the final day because

04:57they wanted to get him back to the UK because previously this event had

05:01overrun. However later in Jernsey and Guernsey where he did spend two days

05:05working with Camilla in the Channel Islands many of these engagements did

05:10over overrun and made people a little bit nervous. Throughout the last six

05:15months during his cancer treatment I'm told that one of the most important

05:18aspects for the King is keeping a positive frame of mind and he has always

05:22been optimistic and he has always held engagements in his mind in the future

05:25that he knew that he want to attend including making sure he gets to

05:29Australia. The role of the Royal Medical Household's Michael Dixon and his

05:33complementary therapy is also said to be key. One of the things that the King

05:38has changed in the past six months and he has been urged by his wife Camilla

05:42who's been by his side much of the time is to change a tradition that he has

05:48always adhered to his entire life and he's actually started eating a light

05:52lunch for the first time in his life even though he admits himself that he

05:56has lost his sense of taste. Of course one of the key aspects for getting the

06:01King back on his feet is the cancer treatment. He has been having weekly

06:05cancer treatment in London and it's been described to me as pioneering and

06:09non-intrusive. Now this is this is targeted treatment I'm told that there

06:13has been a quiet revolution in cancer treatment in the UK and the King has

06:17been one of the beneficiaries. When we say targeted treatment we say that it

06:22is less of a blitzkrieg effect on the body and more finding out where the

06:27actual treatment needs to go and targeting properly. Now this has limited

06:32the side effects I think you will see the King in the last couple of months he

06:36has not for instance suffered any hair loss and he has been he has been buoyed

06:40by the fact that his side effects have been less as a result of this pioneering

06:44new treatment. Of course as anybody who has a family member who has gone through

06:49cancer the importance of family has been key and it was told to me that when his

06:54wife Camilla visited him in hospital she would go there every night to have

06:59lunch with the King before she went home and as someone quite close to the King

07:05at the time said to me hashtag wife goals. But also the Princess of Wales has

07:09been very close very closely speaking to the King quite a lot and they had lunch

07:13several times at Windsor Castle and the King would meet William every Sunday at

07:18Windsor Castle for a father and son chat. There has been many questions as to what

07:23type of cancer the King has. Now there are currently no plans to reveal this

07:27diagnosis. We know the general area we know that it was found while his doctors

07:34were treating him from enlarged prostate but we are told it is not prostate

07:38cancer. Now he will continue not to tell anybody what his diagnosis is as he

07:43wants to represent patients of all cancers rather than just be pigeonholed

07:48for one specific cancer. After six months as I said the King is full of

07:54optimism but he isn't out of the woods yet he hasn't had the all clear but the

07:59Australia tour will go ahead and as anyone who knows anything about Australia

08:02the sun will definitely be shining there.

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