The royal family has rallied around King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales, as both senior members of the Crown continue their cancer battles.
"It's very important to have someone around to care for you and to support you psychologically as well as physically," cancer specialist Karol Sikora told GBN's Digital Royal Editor Svar Nanan-Sen and royal correspondent Cameron Walker on "The Royal Record" podcast.
"If you feel tired, you want to be able to relax, it's really important to have emotional support and that can come from a family, from a partner, or even from grandchildren," the specialist added. "You see all sorts of wonderful things happening in families that may have dissipated a bit, split up, daughters coming back, having been absent for ten years, coming back and living with their mum to help through a difficult time in life."
Walker replied: "We saw Prince Harry come back across the Atlantic when the King had his cancer diagnosis or made it public. So I suppose it just shows how illness can bring people back together."
Sikora said: "It does and I think making it public is important because there are about 350,000 a year who get cancer. 1,000 patients a day, nearly. So to know that the royal family have the same problems as us, it's a wake-up call that you can't avoid it, and we have to live with it. They're having to live with it too and everyone copes in very different ways."
His Majesty was diagnosed with a still unknown type of cancer in February following a routine prostate procedure. In a "stunning" turn of events, his daughter-in-law, and Britain's next Queen Consort, Kate, Princess of Wales, was told that same month that cancer cells were found near the area in which she received abdominal surgery on January 16. HRH released an "emotional" video on March 22 telling the world that she was receiving preventative chemotherapy.
"The monarchy is going through one of the most difficult sets of challenges," Queen Elizabeth II's former press secretary Alisa Anderson said. "But it just felt like a corner had been turned."
King Charles III has fully returned to public royal duties. As for the Princess of Wales, she is taking things slow.
"I have been blown away by all the kind messages of support and encouragement over the last couple of months," the future queen wrote on her Instagram on Friday, June 14. "It really has made the world of difference to William and me and has helped us both through some of the harder times. I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days."
HRH concluded: "On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well. My treatment is ongoing and will be for a few more months."
