Last week, King Charles III told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that the deluge of cards wishing him support after his recent cancer diagnosis “reduced me to tears” during their weekly meeting. On Saturday, Buckingham Palace released a video showing the king going through a selection of those cards, focusing on a few that also made him laugh.
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In the video, uploaded to the royal family’s official social media channels, the palace said that they received more than seven thousand cards and letters in the weeks after the king announced the discovery of cancer during a procedure for benign Prostate enlargement. Charles has taken a step back from his public duties while he undergoes outpatient treatment for the unspecified cancer, but he is still holding governmental meetings and receiving his daily delivery of papers in a red leather box. The palace correspondence team also included a delivery of letters and cards from well-wishers inside his boxes. “The King has since had a chance to read a wide selection of this correspondence,” the palace said. “Thank you to all those who have written in.”
Though some writers wrote heartfelt messages about their own experiences with cancer, the video also shows the king reading a few of the funnier messages, including a card featuring a dog in a clear plastic collar with the caption, “At least you don’t have to wear a cone.” Some also feature a bit of very British advice about dealing with the difficult realities of treatment. “Chin up, chest out, remain positive, don’t let it get you down,” one read. “Trust me, it works, but the main thing is family.”
The king hasn’t had an in-person public engagement in the Court Circular since he welcomed Dame Polly Courtice from Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Professor Robert Miller from its Whittle Laboratory to Sandringham for a meeting on January 25. However, he has continued to release statements and appear in photographs on his usual walk to church. On Saturday, he shared a message of support for the Ukrainian people on the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, mentioning his meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska.
“The determination and strength of the Ukrainian people continues to inspire, as the unprovoked attack on their land, their lives and livelihoods enters a third, tragic, year,” he wrote. “Despite the tremendous hardship and pain inflicted upon them, Ukrainians continue to show the heroism with which the world associates them so closely. Theirs is true valor, in the face of indescribable aggression. I have felt this personally in the many meetings I have had with Ukrainians since the start of the war, from President Zelenskyy and Mrs. Zelenska, to new army recruits training here in the United Kingdom.”