Silent sufferers
The King has been praised for being open about his diagnosis. “The fact that Buckingham Palace announced His Majesty’s illness, which they wouldn’t have done without his say-so, shows a new attitude,” says former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter.
Adds media commentator Charlotte Lyon, “Having vowed to modernise the monarchy, this openness seems proof of his commitment, the kind of transparency on a sensitive matter that no previous royal figurehead has come close to.”
A generation ago, such transparency was unthinkable. His grandfather, King George VI, had lung cancer but that information was never made public. In fact, his doctors never told the King himself that his lung issues were due to a carcinoma. When he had his left lung removed in 1951, it was put down to “structural abnormalities”. He died suddenly in his sleep the following February, with the cause of death announced as coronary thrombosis – a blockage of blood flow to the heart.
But in 2021, an eminent cancer researcher and a pathology professor who decided to look into the
King’s death after seeing it portrayed on TV series The
Crown, concluded after reading medical records that the most likely cause was complications caused by the cancer spreading to his right lung.
George’s widow Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, had cancer twice, but neither illness was revealed until after her death. At the age of 66, she had surgery to remove a tumour in her colon. At 84, she had a cancerous lump removed from her breast.
She went on to live to 101.
And after Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, it was revealed she’d been suffering from myeloma, a rare form of bone marrow cancer. Biographer Gyles Brandreth wrote that she’d had the condition for some time.
Other members of the royal family have disclosed their experiences with cancer but none have been as senior as the King.
In 2002, Princess Michael of Kent revealed she had been treated for skin cancer and 12 years later, her husband Prince Michael of Kent talked about having had prostate cancer.
Since being diagnosed with breast cancer last year, Sarah, Duchess of York, has been very open about her mastectomy. Earlier this year, she announced she also has malignant melanoma.