King strong enough to go solo at events

THE King is feeling strong enough to attend engagements without support from Queen Camilla this summer, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Buckingham Palace said on Friday that Charles will return to public duties next week with his doctors’ blessing – starting on Tuesday with a visit to a cancer treatment centre with the Queen.

Royal aides stressed the King is not yet clear of cancer and is still undergoing treatment, meaning his expected attendance at events such as Trooping the Colour was not ‘guaranteed at this stage’.

But the MoS understands that Charles is planning to undertake solo engagements this summer.

The King has not appeared alone in public since December 7 when he toured Ealing Broadway shopping centre in west London and was mobbed by well-wishers.

His last major engagement with Camilla took place two days prior, when they joined the Prince and Princess of Wales at a ball for 500 members of the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace.

Charles ‘will hope to cover all the bases that are important to him and are connected with his core values’, said a source.

The King’s solo appearances will focus on what Palace aides are calling the ‘four C’s’: climate, community, culture and commonwealth. Now there will also be a fifth C: cancer.

An insider said the King hopes to be a leading example for cancer sufferers and show, where possible, you can have an active life while undergoing treatment.

A Royal source said optimism at the Palace was being treated with caution and Charles’s schedule will be ‘carefully calibrated’.

The King’s summer calendar will feature indoor and outdoor events but his public-facing duties are expected to be shorter and with fewer people.

A Palace source said his plans were ‘subject to doctors’ advice’.