King Charles at Center of New Health Scare: Cancer-Hit Monarch Persuaded to Take Two Doctors and Blood Supply on Royal Tour
Oct. 12 2024, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Cancer-battling King Charles has agreed to take two doctors and an emergency supply of his blood with him on his 11-day tour of Australia and Samoa.
RadarOnline.com previously revealed the 75-year-old monarch decided to ditch his life-saving chemotherapy treatment for the marathon 30,000-mile trip – with palace flunkies saying the move has sent his wife Queen Camilla into a “spiral of panic”.
We can now reveal Charles – who has been fighting an undisclosed form of cancer since February – will have two medics to monitor his every move when he travels to Australia and Samoa between Friday, October 18, and Saturday, October 26.
A source said: "Charles has sparked genuine concern among senior palace aides and his wife he is dicing with death by putting his chemo on hold to do this trip.
"A man in his state should not be going – but he prides himself on being a 'stoic' with a 'stiff upper lip', so he is pressing on.
"The decision to have round-the-clock doctors with him was made for his safety, and even though it took some talking to him to make him relent, he has done the sensible thing and allowed the medics to be with him at all times."
Charles’ visit to Sydney and Canberra will be his first to a Commonwealth realm since he was crowned on May 6, 2023, just over eight months after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, aged 96.
Insiders added Charles will be “monitored closely during the visit” and will be picking up his chemo treatment as soon as he returns to Britain.
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The monarch has been mixing the traditional cancer-fighting method with homeopathy as he's had a years-long obsession with the power of alternative medicine.
But insiders say Michael Dixon – his head of the royal medical household who is renowned for his interest in homeopathy – will not be traveling with His Majesty.
Charles will have a supply of his blood brought on his trip to ensure a match if a transfusion is needed.
Along with his two-doctor team, Charles' itinerary has been designed not to leave him exhausted.
He and Camilla, 77, who is also going on the tour, will have a rest day, and there will be no evening engagements. But the couple will arrive at night and attend a state dinner when they go to Samoa.
Charles is due to visit the Sydney Opera House and enjoy a barbecue in Australia.
A planned visit to New Zealand was dropped from the tour due to his health.
In April, Buckingham Palace announced Charles was "greatly encouraged" by news from his doctors that he could resume public duties while his treatment continued.
A palace spokesman said it was "too early to say" how long the treatment would continue – but stressed Charles' medics were "sufficiently pleased with the progress made so far".
It's understood Charles has been getting chemo once a week.
His first public engagement after resuming work after he took a break from the spotlight following the announcement of his diagnosis was a visit with Camilla to a cancer care center.
Charles told New Zealand's women's rugby team during a reception at Buckingham Palace last month about his regret he wouldn't be able to visit their nation as part of his upcoming tour: "I'm extremely sorry I can't come to New Zealand in later October – it's on doctors' orders."
Charles' daughter-in-law Kate Middleton, 42, who is married to his eldest son Prince William, also 42, recently told how she was cancer-free.
She completed a course of preventative treatment for the disease after cancerous cells were found after she underwent abdominal surgery in January.
The royal mother-of-three – who has kids Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and six-year-old Prince Louis – with William, went under the knife in the London Clinic at the same time Charles had surgery for an enlarged prostate at the facility.
It was following the operation he was found to have cancer.
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