The King has released an unusually personal message about his cancer treatment, urging the public to embrace early screening as he prepares to enter a lighter phase of treatment in the new year. The address, recorded at Clarence House for Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign, offers the clearest insight yet into how the monarch has navigated his diagnosis since it was disclosed earlier this year.
In the broadcast, the King reflects on the emotional weight of hearing the word “cancer”, pays tribute to the doctors and nurses who have supported him, and warns of the millions who are missing potentially life-saving checks. Here, we publish his speech in full.
The King’s message in full:
This is a season when our thoughts turn to celebrations with
our friends and
families. In the midst of this festive period, I just wanted to ask
you to join me
today in finding a special place in your hearts, and your minds and
prayers for
the hundreds of thousands of people across our United Kingdom who
receive a
cancer diagnosis each year – and for the millions more who love and
care for
them.
I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can
feel overwhelming.
Yet I also know that early detection is the key that can transform
treatment
journeys, giving invaluable time to medical teams – and, to their
patients, the
precious gift of hope.
These are gifts we can all help deliver.
Throughout my own cancer journey, I have been profoundly
moved by what I
can only call the “community of care” that surrounds every cancer
patient – the
specialists, the nurses, researchers and volunteers who work
tirelessly to save
and improve lives.
But I have also learned something that troubles me deeply –
at least nine million
people in our country are not up to date with the cancer screenings
available to
them. That is at least nine million opportunities for early
diagnosis being
missed.
The statistics speak with stark clarity. To take just one
example: When bowel
cancer is caught at the earliest stage, around nine in ten people
survive for at
least five years. When diagnosed late, that falls to just one in
ten.
Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.
Now, I have heard this message repeatedly during my visits
to cancer centres
across the country. I know, too, what a difference it has made in
my own case,
enabling me to continue leading a full and active life, even while
undergoing
treatment.
Indeed, today I am able to share with you the good news that
thanks to early
diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’
orders’, my own
schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year. This
milestone is
both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances
that have
been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may
give
encouragement to the fifty per cent of us who will be diagnosed
with the illness
at some point in our lives.
Yet too often, I am told, people avoid screening because
they imagine it may be
frightening, embarrassing or uncomfortable. If and when they do
finally take up
their invitation, they are glad they took part. A few moments of
minor
inconvenience are a small price to pay for the reassurance that
comes for most
people when they are either told either they don’t need further
tests, or, for
some, are given the chance to enable early detection, with the
life-saving
intervention that can follow.
This is why I am so encouraged to learn about the new
national Screening
Checker that is available online. This simple tool allows you to
check whether
you are eligible for breast, bowel or cervical cancer screening. It
demystifies the
process, answers your questions, and guides you towards taking that
crucial
step.
As I have observed before, the darkest moments of illness
can be illuminated by
the greatest compassion. But compassion must be paired with action.
This
December, as we gather to reflect on the year past, I pray that we
can each
pledge, as part of our resolutions for the year ahead, to play our
part in helping
to catch cancer early.
Your life – or the life of someone you love – may depend upon it.
Therefore, this brings my most heartfelt thanks to the
doctors, nurses,
researchers and charity workers involved in diagnosis and
treatment
programmes, together with my particular good wishes to those for
whom they
care so selflessly.
