King’s cancer diagnosis: Health issues Charles has faced over the years
The King has begun treatment for a cancer diagnosed following his treatment for an enlarged prostate.
He will now undergo a schedule of regular treatments, during which he has been advised by doctors to postpone public-facing duties.
Buckingham Palace has not confirmed what type of cancer the King has.
Follow live: King chose to share diagnosis to ‘prevent speculation’
Here are some of the previous health issues the King has faced.
Enlarged prostate
The King’s health has been in the spotlight already this year.
On 17 January, he was diagnosed with a benign condition while staying at Birkhall in Aberdeenshire, after going for a check up because he was experiencing symptoms.
He underwent surgery for the enlarged prostate, and it is understood he wanted to share the news to encourage other men to get themselves checked.
The NHS reported huge boosts in people asking to find out more about the condition affecting the King.
The King, who only acceded to throne 16 months ago, cancelled engagements and was urged to rest by his doctors ahead of the corrective procedure.
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What next for the King?
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One in every three men over the age of 50 will have symptoms of an enlarged prostate, which include needing to visit the toilet more frequently, with more urgency, and difficulty emptying the bladder.
An enlarged prostate, known as benign prostatic hyperplasia, does not usually pose a serious threat to health, and it is not cancer.
Early polo injuries
In one of his earlier polo-related injuries, he was thrown and kicked by his pony and needed six stitches in 1980.
The King used to play polo regularly, which resulted in several injuries over the years. Pic: PA
He suffered a two-inch crescent scar on his left cheek after that incident.
He was also hit in the throat on another occasion, causing him to lose his voice for 10 days.
The monarch resisted pressure to give up polo after he collapsed in 1980 at the end of a game in Florida and had to be put on a saline drip.
Avalanche near-miss
In 1988, while skiing off piste at Klosters on one of Europe’s most dangerous runs, he narrowly escaped an avalanche that killed his good friend Major Hugh Lindsay, who was a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth II.
He jumped to a ledge and helped save the life of another friend, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, by digging her out of snow and keeping her conscious until a helicopter arrived.
He would later say he had never seen anything so terrifying.
Knee surgery
In March 1998, the King – then Prince Charles – had laser keyhole surgery on his right knee.
That came six years after an operation to repair torn cartilage in his left knee after a polo injury.
The outdoor and active Prince of Wales also suffered from back pain at the time, which had been aggravated over years of playing polo.
He never travelled on royal tours without a special cushion, usually a tartan one, which he used to ease back pain.
Broken rib
In the same year, he broke a rib when he fell from his horse in a hunting accident.
Double arm break
The then Prince of Wales leaving hospital after breaking his arm in 1990. Pic: PA
The King has over the years had some form for falling from his horse in a polo game.
In June 1990 he broke his arm in two places and spent three nights in Cirencester Memorial Hospital in Gloucestershire after an accident in a competitive game of polo.
When he left hospital, he was reported to have told journalists outside “you can all go home at last”, as he got into his car.
He needed another operation three months later after one of the fractures didn’t properly heal.
It is understood bone was taken from his hip to help with healing the break, while a metal plate was also fitted with screws.
Shoulder fracture
In January 2001, he fractured a bone in his shoulder after falling off his horse during a fox hunt in Derbyshire.
The Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre in Nottingham, where the King was treated for the shoulder injury. Pic: PA
He had to wear a sling for several days while the fracture healed.
Knocked unconscious
Just a few months later, in August, he was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure for what was described as a minor injury.
But he had been knocked unconscious when his horse threw him during a polo match, leading to him being stretchered off and taken by ambulance.
It is reported he fell halfway through the second half of a charity polo match in Cirencester in Gloucestershire.
Hernia operation
Two years later, in March 2003, the King had a routine operation for a hernia, and reportedly joked afterwards “hernia today, gone tomorrow”.
It’s not clear how he picked up the injury, which is a common operation.
Growth removed
In 2008, he had a non-cancerous growth removed from the bridge of his nose in a routine procedure.
Catching COVID
In March 2020, the monarch, then 71, caught COVID before vaccinations were available.
His symptoms were mild and he isolated at Birkhall.
He lost his sense of taste and smell for a time, and later described it as “strange, frustrating and often distressing” being without friends and relatives over lockdown.
He was infected for a second time in February 2022, but at that point he was triple-vaccinated.
Appendix operation
In one of his earliest known admissions to hospital, the young prince was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital for an appendix operation as a 13-year-old in February 1962.
He declared on a later visit: “I got here just in time before the thing exploded and was happily operated on and looked after by the nurses.”
‘Sausage fingers’
The King has long been aware of his large fingers. Pic: PA
Concern has been expressed over the years at his “sausage fingers” amid fears they might be due to fluid build-up or other conditions.
While any details around the cause – if any exist – have not been made public, the King has been aware of his puffy fingers for decades.
“He really does look surprisingly appetising and has sausage fingers just like mine,” he wrote in 1982 to a friend after the birth of his first son, William.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
Read more on grooming gangs:
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A timeline of the scandal
Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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