Royal historian says King Charles’ cancer update is a powerful health message

ABC NEWS (Australia)

King Charles has revealed his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year, with the 77-year-old saying the milestone is a personal blessing. Royal historian at the University of Sydney Associate Professor Cindy McCreery discusses the impact of his message.

Transcript

00:00this is a very interesting moment it seems to me in the history of monarchy because what we have

00:06is two different strands coming together one is very familiar that is what historians call the

00:11welfare monarchy monarchs those people who open hospital wings who give to charities who raise

00:16a profile of issues that affect the people and the second strand is much more personal this is what

00:21we might call the eye monarchy this is a monarch disclosing his own health details and using his

00:26own example of his health journey in as a way to inspire others and we haven't seen this in

00:30britain before and i think it's a very powerful message albeit one that is still i think short on

00:35detail a message that represents a real shift for the royal family as well absolutely i think we saw

00:44that with the disclosure not only of the king's update on his health but previous messages by

00:49the princess of wales catherine about her own cancer journey and i think what affected many people

00:54deeply around the world was their real sense of openness uh and it's clear that they both

00:59struggled individually with these you know terrible diagnoses even though they also wanted to share

01:04some details of their head their health in order to inspire others that's something that the british

01:09monarchy has not done in the past in in the 20th century and in previous centuries the monarchy was

01:14always very private about their health and in some cases you know the world woke up to the news of

01:20for example a monarch passing away with very little knowledge that in fact that monarch had been

01:24very ill for years this is a real shift and it shows the monarchy trying to reach out and become

01:29what charles signaled in his coronation his goal was to become a people's monarch what's behind that

01:36shift of becoming more of a people's monarch and what impact does this kind of personal openness

01:43have in terms of perhaps encouraging people to get themselves screened and tested for cancer

01:50yes so firstly i think that for charles as for his predecessor queen elizabeth ii it became very

01:57clear that as the queen late queen said we have to i have to be seen to be believed and i think in the

02:02days in which as the king mentioned up to 50 percent of people in the uk could expect to be diagnosed with

02:08cancer it simply really isn't feasible anymore for the monarch particularly one who's been diagnosed

02:12to somehow pretend that they're not part of this this community and i think charles is rightly

02:17acknowledging that he like all of us is human and that this disease can affect all of us and i think

02:22that's a very powerful message to tell people and to encourage them to overcome their natural fears

02:26about a cancer diagnosis or cancer treatment and to seek help and assistance and it's really putting

02:31the monarchy on the level of ordinary people even though we can of course uh note the real limitations

02:37to that and i do want to say that we need to be mindful that of course there are different

02:41opportunities here and while the king has acknowledged that nine million people in the uk apparently aren't

02:45uh checking uh or are eligible for for scanning that they haven't received i think we need to note

02:51that eligibility is not the same as accessibility and for many people in the uk with the nhs and the

02:56struggles they're facing it may be much more difficult to access those scans than this message

03:01suggests not no reason not to do it but i think we do need to acknowledge that yeah a very important

03:06point to acknowledge this openness from the monarchy is it being received well by the public

03:11absolutely i think that we've seen uh public support for individually the the monarch but also

03:18catherine princess of wales really sore with the with the way in which they've shared what have been

03:23you know immensely difficult and private details of their lives with with the public uh but of course i

03:29think we should also be cautious this is not a complete tell-all and details of the king's type of

03:35cancer the type of treatment he's receiving his prognosis remain private as of course they should

03:40uh he like everyone is an individual whose health should be private um but i think it's a powerful

03:45message nevertheless and a real change from the previous way that the british monarchy is engaged

03:50in terms of sharing health news with with the world so this is good news in terms of the king's

03:56cancer treatment what does it mean for his royal duties moving forward look it seems very good news and

04:02he's acknowledged that he is able to continue with most of his work duties but i would also note that the

04:08message also indicates that the treatment hasn't finished and we're not seeing terms such as the

04:13princess of wales use like remission so it's not a case that the cancer has been cured or that

04:18treatment has finished and of course for a 77 year old i think any kind of cancer treatment can still

04:23be rigorous and there can still be dangers nevertheless it is very positive news and i do want to note that

04:28the the overall message here should be for all of us wherever we are not just in in britain but

04:33around the world get uh scans get uh diagnoses early uh the overriding message of getting ourselves

04:40checked out uh is important for all of us to remember

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