King Charles Gives First Health Update in Months in Candid Conversation with Cancer Survivor
- - - King Charles Gives First Health Update in Months in Candid Conversation with Cancer Survivor
Janine HenniJuly 22, 2025 at 3:36 PM
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King Charles meets members of the public in Newmarket on July 22, 2025
King Charles is offered a rare comment about his health as his treatment for cancer continues.
On July 22, the King, 76, spoke about how he was feeling in conversation with a cancer survivor during a walkabout in Newmarket with Queen Camilla, which wrapped up their visit there.
"I asked him how he was, and he said he was feeling a lot better now and that it was 'just one of those things,' " local Lee Harman told PA, according to Hello! magazine.
Harman told the sovereign about his own health journey and said the King inquired about how he was.
"He asked me how I was, and I said, 'I'm all good, I got the all clear from cancer last year,' " said Harman, 54, who is from the nearby town of Bury St Edmunds.
The candid comment in conversation with a cancer survivor marked a rare revelation from the monarch about his own health. King Charles has maintained a full schedule of royal duties as his treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer announced in 2024 continues into this year, but he doesn't often talk about how he is feeling personally.
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Queen Camilla and King Charles in Newmarket on July 22, 2025.
In February 2024, Buckingham Palace announced that the King was diagnosed with cancer and began treatment. The sovereign had a procedure to treat a benign enlarged prostate that January, but a spokesman clarified he does not have prostate cancer.
On doctors' advice, King Charles postponed public-facing work for a three-month period, but he continued to undertake state business and paperwork behind the scenes.
He resumed forward work in late April 2024, and palace sources said before Christmas that his treatment for cancer would continue into the new year.
"His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year," palace sources said on Dec. 20, just a few days before he continued tradition by stepping out for church on Christmas with his family.
On March 27, the palace announced that King Charles briefly hospitalized following an adverse reaction to his routine cancer treatment. The sovereign was admitted to the London Clinic (where he had had the prostate operation last year) after experiencing "temporary side effects that required a short period of observation in hospital," his office said.
Sources said that such setbacks are not uncommon. A royal source described the scare as "the most minor bump in the road that’s very much heading in the right direction," and he returned to work the following week.
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King Charles speaks with staff and members of The Jockey Club on July 22, 2025.
In late May, the King and Queen, 78, traveled to Canada for an official two-day trip, and an aide shared how he was managing his illness as he continued with his royal duties.
"The thing you learn about this illness is that you just manage it, and that’s what he does," the aide said then.
"Medical science has made incredible advances, and I genuinely see no difference in him," they added. "As long as you just do what the doctors say, just live your life as normal as possible. That’s exactly what he is doing."
Earlier that month, the King shared what "can help" during cancer treatment in conversation with a young man who was also undergoing treatment for cancer.
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King Charles in Newmarket on July 22, 2025.
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"He was asking me about the treatment I have starting in June and spoke to me about food and diet. He also asked me if I had undergone radiation treatment, which I had earlier this year," Exeter University student Stamford Collis, 22, said after he met the monarch at a Buckingham Palace garden party, The Telegraph reported.
The King was heard saying, "It’s sometimes about the diet and what you eat. It can help."
Queen Camilla's son, food writer Tom Parker Bowles, has said that the King and Queen eat "simple, healthy and resolutely seasonal food" with a pantry full of the "seasonal bounty of the royal estates."
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