Inside story of how King Charles bounced back from cancer
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00:00Six months ago King Charles revealed he had cancer, a devastating diagnosis for a
00:05man in his 70s and it came just 16 months into his reign. But today while he
00:10has not had the all-clear and is not out of the woods yet there is great
00:15optimism. This is the inside story on how the King was put back together again and
00:19it's a story of Covid-style restrictions, pioneering cancer treatment and even him
00:24choosing to eat lunch for the first time in his life. And as one source close to
00:29Charles tells me, the sun wasn't shining in February but it is now. It's worth
00:33going back to those dark, dark days where the sun wasn't shining in February where
00:37the King was taken to hospital and he said that he had cancer. This came right
00:41at the same time as the Princess of Wales was also in hospital. There were
00:45many fears for the King. Would he last? How much longer would he
00:49survive? Would we need a Prince Regent? Would his reign be doomed? Immediately
00:54the royal household sprung into action. He was pulled from duty, he was pulled
00:58from frontline duty, not because he couldn't do the job but because there
01:02were fears about getting secondary infections. He was having cancer
01:05treatment so he needed to be kept away from people just in case he caught any
01:09other infections or any other diseases. Now this meant he spent a lot of time in
01:13the countryside. He would be up in Sandringham and they would only come in
01:17for his weekly cancer treatment. Camilla even said to him he had to slow down and
01:22Charles is known as a workaholic. Despite being pulled from public duty for many
01:27weeks he actually managed to spend more time working by having all this spare
01:32time to read his red government boxes. But around this time the aides were
01:37sent into a bit of a flap because Prince Harry, his son, jetted over from the
01:41United States to the UK to see his father. This was seen as a gesture at the
01:45time of Harry wanting to be close to the King. He wanted to be close to his
01:49father and really see how he was. But Harry was restricted for 30 minutes. The
01:54reason behind this was because of the restrictions that the royal household
01:59and the doctors had put in place. They didn't want someone flying 5,000 miles
02:04from the United States carrying all sorts of infections, all sorts of
02:07possible infections and being close to the King when his health levels were low
02:12due to his cancer treatment. In fact he was even banned from joining his father
02:16at Sandringham as one aide said to me they feared they would never get rid of
02:20him. In the early weeks COVID style tiers were introduced to ease the King
02:25back to work. We all remember during the COVID era where we were told we could
02:31only socialise with small groups of people and that is exactly what they did
02:34with the King. They gradually increased the number of groups, they gradually
02:39changed the tiers to allow the King to meet wider public and larger members of
02:44the royal household. It is also similar to what was carried out by the royal
02:48household for the late Queen which was called Operation Bubble during the
02:52COVID restrictions where there was only about two dozen people at any
02:56stage that were allowed to be anywhere near to reduce the risk of infection. So
03:01as the treatment worked and as the risk of infection diminished the COVID style
03:06tiers changed. This meant in April he actually got out to meet lots of members
03:11of the public at Easter Sunday at Windsor Castle. I think I counted around
03:1660 members of public that the King was allowed to greet, shake hands with and
03:20talk and this was a huge change. Other elements of the COVID style tiers which
03:24changes for instance when he got to meet the Prime Minister, he got to spend time
03:27with Rishi Sunak where they had a nice chat and he got to spend more time
03:31outside of London staying at other properties opposed to only Sandringham
03:36in Norfolk. By mid-April by this time that he had actually gone out and met
03:41members of the public the King was so confident his treatment was going well
03:44that he ordered aides to supercharge his diary and he demanded that the
03:48Australia tour that will go ahead this October will happen. It was the King that
03:53said he would return to duty and it was the King that said he was well enough to
03:56go to Australia. After the success of the Easter Sunday event the King returned to
04:03frontline duty. However while he has been out working meeting members of the
04:08public there has been an extra restriction placed on the King where he
04:11can only meet members of the public for five hours a day and again this is just
04:16one of a number of the COVID level style tiers that are put in place for his
04:20own health and safety. This restriction to five hours a day will continue while
04:24he is on tour in Australia in October. During the summer the King also got to
04:29travel to France. Now this was a surprise to many people because it involved
04:34international travel and meeting people from another country. Interestingly he
04:38actually had his weekly cancer treatment the day before he set off to
04:43the beaches in France. The royal household did actually change his
04:48schedule while he was in France to deal with the fact that he was still
04:52undergoing cancer. He didn't attend the final event on the final day because
04:57they wanted to get him back to the UK because previously this event had
05:01overrun. However later in Jernsey and Guernsey where he did spend two days
05:05working with Camilla in the Channel Islands many of these engagements did
05:10over overrun and made people a little bit nervous. Throughout the last six
05:15months during his cancer treatment I'm told that one of the most important
05:18aspects for the King is keeping a positive frame of mind and he has always
05:22been optimistic and he has always held engagements in his mind in the future
05:25that he knew that he want to attend including making sure he gets to
05:29Australia. The role of the Royal Medical Household's Michael Dixon and his
05:33complementary therapy is also said to be key. One of the things that the King
05:38has changed in the past six months and he has been urged by his wife Camilla
05:42who's been by his side much of the time is to change a tradition that he has
05:48always adhered to his entire life and he's actually started eating a light
05:52lunch for the first time in his life even though he admits himself that he
05:56has lost his sense of taste. Of course one of the key aspects for getting the
06:01King back on his feet is the cancer treatment. He has been having weekly
06:05cancer treatment in London and it's been described to me as pioneering and
06:09non-intrusive. Now this is this is targeted treatment I'm told that there
06:13has been a quiet revolution in cancer treatment in the UK and the King has
06:17been one of the beneficiaries. When we say targeted treatment we say that it
06:22is less of a blitzkrieg effect on the body and more finding out where the
06:27actual treatment needs to go and targeting properly. Now this has limited
06:32the side effects I think you will see the King in the last couple of months he
06:36has not for instance suffered any hair loss and he has been he has been buoyed
06:40by the fact that his side effects have been less as a result of this pioneering
06:44new treatment. Of course as anybody who has a family member who has gone through
06:49cancer the importance of family has been key and it was told to me that when his
06:54wife Camilla visited him in hospital she would go there every night to have
06:59lunch with the King before she went home and as someone quite close to the King
07:05at the time said to me hashtag wife goals. But also the Princess of Wales has
07:09been very close very closely speaking to the King quite a lot and they had lunch
07:13several times at Windsor Castle and the King would meet William every Sunday at
07:18Windsor Castle for a father and son chat. There has been many questions as to what
07:23type of cancer the King has. Now there are currently no plans to reveal this
07:27diagnosis. We know the general area we know that it was found while his doctors
07:34were treating him from enlarged prostate but we are told it is not prostate
07:38cancer. Now he will continue not to tell anybody what his diagnosis is as he
07:43wants to represent patients of all cancers rather than just be pigeonholed
07:48for one specific cancer. After six months as I said the King is full of
07:54optimism but he isn't out of the woods yet he hasn't had the all clear but the
07:59Australia tour will go ahead and as anyone who knows anything about Australia
08:02the sun will definitely be shining there.