Why King Charles’s openness on cancer treatment is huge step change from past

The King’s window was wound down as the car left Clarence House on Friday. Even that says a lot about the monarch and his approach to his cancer treatment right now.

He wants to be seen by people, he wants to be as open as possible about what he’s going through.

It comes after he cancelled his Friday engagements due to “temporary side effects” from his cancer treatment that required a “short period of observation in hospital”, Buckingham Palace said.

For those of us who’ve reported on the royals for some time, the amount he’s shared has been a huge step change from the past.

Partly guided by him, I am regularly told he wanted to share his diagnosis and the fact that he’s still having treatment, especially if he thinks it can help others.

But also lessons have been learnt from the past.

You may remember that in October 2021, The Sun newspaper revealed that Queen Elizabeth had spent a night in hospital, and that’s why she had cancelled a trip to Northern Ireland.

I remember it well, I’d already flown there, but the palace hadn’t proactively told us about her hospital stay.

It caused outrage that information about our head of state and her health was being kept from the public.

The palace doesn’t want a repeat of that – especially when the King’s openness has had such a positive impact on the discussions around cancer.

The King has chosen not to reveal what kind of cancer he has been treated for and some, of course, want to know exactly what he has been diagnosed with.

Some ask if the public deserve to know more – which is a question for constitutional experts.

Craig Prescott told Sky News: “The King has the right to the privacy of his health affairs but there is a public interest when those health issues affect the King’s ability to conduct his engagements and fulfil his constitutional functions.”

But cancer charities have told me the fact we don’t know has been beneficial. It’s not made one specific cancer more important than others – it’s shown everyone’s journey and potential struggles are worthy of respect.

The fact that the King has been so busy with engagements, and strikingly front and centre of high stakes diplomatic issues recently, shows how much he is lifted by his official work, which gives him real purpose.

But this shows us all that he is only human, and the cancer treatment he’s going through is tough at times.

Last week, the King asked other cancer patients in Northern Ireland if they were “managing to survive the side effects alright”, before sharing his advice, telling them: “What’s that Winston Churchill saying? Keep buggering on.”

Largely with the King, he’s been lucky; we haven’t visibly seen any of the side effects he asked the others about. But this hospital visit is a reminder that he’s still very much going through it – and living with it.