Britain’s head of state King Charles III turns 76 on Thursday, still in the grip of cancer treatment but with his passion for work undimmed by what his son and heir Prince William called a “brutal” year.
Charles paused royal duties in February after he was diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer. Two and a half months later at the end of April, he was back at work.
“The problem is trying to stop him,” his wife, Queen Camilla, has said several times since.
Last month, the couple even resumed their foreign travels, with the king pausing his treatment while visiting Australia then Samoa for a Commonwealth heads of government meeting.
According to those close to him, Charles returned “invigorated” from the 11-day trip, while one palace official said the king intended to return to a “normal” schedule of overseas trips next year.
His desire to fulfil his public duties may be influenced by the fact when he succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, he was the longest-serving heir apparent in British history at 70 years.
Upon ascending the throne on September 8, 2022, when Elizabeth died, Charles pledged to perform his constitutional role “throughout the remaining time God grants me”.
Last Sunday, he led the nation in a two-minute silence to honour Britons killed in battle since 1914 at the Cenotaph memorial in London, one of the most important dates in the royal calendar.
The previous evening, he joined his son William and daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales — who recently completed chemotherapy for her own cancer diagnosis this year — at the Royal Albert Hall for a commemorative concert.
After welcoming Bahrain’s king on Tuesday, Charles hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday for the British film and TV industry, then attended the world premiere of “Gladiator II”.
His birthday will be marked by ceremonial gun salutes — a tradition for the monarch’s birthday — but there will be no day off.
Charles is due in south London to open a centre for the redistribution of surplus food, where he will inspect a newly installed industrial freezer.
The hub is part his “Coronation Food Project”, which was launched on his 75th birthday and aims to tackle food waste and support people in need.
– ‘So proud’ –
The 12 months since Charles’s last birthday have been difficult for the royal family.
Charles remains largely estranged from his younger son Prince Harry and wife Meghan, while both Charles’s and William’s finances were the subject of damaging allegations in a recent documentary.
Calls for slavery reparations stemming from Britain’s colonial rule also grew at the Commonwealth summit.
None has been more worrying than the twin cancer diagnoses, however.
Buckingham Palace announced Charles’s cancer a few weeks after a prostate operation but specified it was not prostate cancer. The type has still not been disclosed.
Then in March, two months after a serious abdominal operation, Catherine — arguably the most popular member of the royal family — announced she was suffering from cancer, again without specifying the type.
Catherine, 42, delighted her many fans by announcing the end of her chemotherapy on September 9, in a widely praised video posted on social networks. She has since gradually returned to royal duties.
“Honestly, it’s been dreadful. It’s probably been the hardest year in my life,” William said earlier this month during a visit to South Africa.
“I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done,” William added.
“But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal,” he said.
But the health of senior royals continues to be followed closely.
A doctor accompanied the king and queen to Australia and Samoa last month. They spent three days at a wellness retreat in Bangalore, India, on their way back to “help break” the long journey, a palace spokesperson said.
A few days later, 77-year-old Camilla suspended a week of engagements because of a lung infection. And the king, a longtime devoted environmentalist, did not travel to Baku in Azerbaijan for the COP29 climate summit.
AFP