King to return to full duties after cancer diagnosis - with royal tours set to be signed off for next year
26 October 2024, 22:15
King Charles will return to full royal duties next year after his cancer diagnosis - with overseas trips set for the spring.
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The King will fly abroad during the spring and autumn, the traditional periods for official foreign royal trips, as long as his doctors sanction the travel.
The announcement comes after the recent royal tour of Australia and Samoa with Queen Camilla - after which the King was said to have found it a "perfect tonic" for his ill-health.
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A palace official said: "We're now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour programme for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms."
An update about the state of the King's health or his treatment has not been given but the news that Charles will take on more overseas trips suggests his cancer is being managed successfully.
The King "genuinely loved" the tour and "genuinely thrived" on the Australian and Samoan programme which ended on Saturday, said the official, as it lifted "his spirits, his mood and his recovery.
"In that sense, the tour, despite its demands, has been the perfect tonic".
He went on to say the monarch takes great strength from the Queen being there, not least because she "keeps it real".
Australia was a significant visit for Charles as it was his first to the country as King and in Samoa he opened a major Commonwealth summit.
Commenting on Charles's decision to undertake the tour, the official said: "I think it's great testament to the King's devotion to service and duty that he was prepared to come this far and he was incredibly happy and very, very determined to do so."
The King has been receiving treatment as an out-patient for an undisclosed form of cancer since early February, and initially postponed all public-facing duties, continuing to work behind the scenes, and returned to events with the public in late April.
Maintaining a work schedule after his diagnosis has been an important part of Charles's holistic approach to his cancer, and during the recent trip with his wife he maintained a busy schedule for the benefit of "mind and soul" while the doctor on the trip looked after the body.
The palace official said about the large number of events the King attended during the recent tour: "It is also a great measure of the way that the King is dealing with the diagnosis.
"And he's a great believer in mind, body and soul, and this combination works very well on a visit like this, because he feels that sense of duty so strongly that to keep his mind and his soul engaged and then the doctor is here to make sure that his body is properly looked after, you've got what makes for very successful visit in in these circumstances."
During Charles's welcome by parliamentarians in Canberra he was confronted by Senator Lidia Thorpe who accused him of grievances against First Nations people including "genocide".
"He was completely unruffled.
"He's been around a long time. As always, kept calm, carried on," said the palace official.
He believes "free speech is the cornerstone of democracy, and so everyone is entitled to their views".
Potential issues during a overseas tour are "not ducked", it's "very easy to run away from some of these issues.
"But the King isn't one for doing that," said the palace official.
The royal couple took to social media to mark the end of their tour, and writing under their own names said: "As our visits to Australia and Samoa come to a close, my wife and I would like to thank both nations for the warmest of welcomes and for the countless fond memories we will carry in our hearts for many years to come.
"Even when we are far apart in distance, the many close connections that unite us across the globe and through our Commonwealth family have been renewed, and will remain as profound as they are enduring."
