As King Charles celebrates his official birthday, we look at how our Queen is helping his recovery
WORDS: ALISON JAMES IMAGES: SHUTTERSTOCK
Three Cheers For
All being well, the King will be present at the Trooping of the Colour to celebrate his official birthday on June 15th. He will no doubt be disappointed that, due to his ongoing treatment for cancer, he will be unable to attend on horseback as he has in the past, but the very fact that he will be there at all is a significant achievement.
King Charles will journey to Horse Guards Parade in a carriage with Queen Camilla, his beloved wife of 19 years.
Just as Queen Elizabeth II described Prince Philip as her “strength and stay”, it is clear that Camilla fulfils a similar role for Charles. In fact, the love, support and positive attitude of his wife is doing much to aid the King’s recovery.
“If you are a positive person, you can do so much more,” she has said.
“People are either glass half empty or glass half full. You have to get on with it, being British!”
None of us can ever know how Queen Camilla reacted in private on learning of Charles’ diagnosis earlier this year. One presumes she was extremely worried but, in public, she has dusted herself off and “got on with it”. She has continued to work harder than ever and has literally gone the extra mile.
After her helicopter was grounded due to bad weather in February, Camilla, 76, took a six-hour road trip from Sandringham, Norfolk to attend a charity concert in Salisbury, Hampshire, because she did not want to let her husband down, having promised to continue with official engagements.
It is clear His Majesty isn’t the most patient of patients, with family members voicing concern that he wasn’t giving himself the best chance of recovery.
“I think, ultimately, he’s hugely frustrated,” his nephew, Peter Phillips said. “He’s frustrated that he can’t get on and do everything that he wants to be able to do. He is always pushing, his staff and everybody and his doctors and nurses, to be able to say, ‘Actually, can I do this?’, ‘Can I do that?’
“The overriding message would be that he’s obviously very keen to get back to a form of normality.”
Last month, at the King’s first engagement since returning to public duties after his diagnosis, he said he’d finally been “let out of his cage”, and Camilla told a royal reporter that Charles was getting better
