As a cancer survivor I understand wanting privacy. At the same time, I’m surprised she hadn’t shared her diagnosis. IN my experience, nothing motivates others to look after their health, get that scan , get the bloodwork, visit the doctor etc than knowing that cancer doesn’t play favorites. Sharing a diagnosis can really be beneficial for so many. Just my opinion.
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It sounds like she’s still having a rough time. I give her credit for being honest! I really do like her. I worry about the kids.
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This approach would be helpful for types of cancer for which there is good screening available (e.g. breast, colon, cervical, skin.) But for types where there are no screening tests available (e.g. pancreatic, ovarian etc.) it would not be helpful.
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Just saw this online. I’m relieved she’s hopeful.
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I know she is a public person.
And this is my opinion.
People with cancer get to announce, deal, treat and share whatever the ^*#@ way they want to.
It’s the cancer card.
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This is why having hereditary heads of state is dehumanising.
Like any other head of state, Charles does have a duty to inform the public of whether he has the capability to act in his office, and whether there is a reasonable assumption he will resume, or continue to be capable. Sorry, there’s no cancer card for heads of state.
This is exactly what he’s done - made this barebones information public. It was his duty, it he wanted to get out of it, he can abdicate an have a regent installed, that’s when he can keep his health information private.
The Princess of Wales can’t get out, not of her own volition. She can, in theory, get out of being wife to the future head of state by getting divorced, but divorce should have nothing to do with wanting to keep her health information private. And she can never get out of being the mother of the future head of state.
This future head of state being in an extremely vulnerable age still, his future subjects do have a (barebones) right to know whether she is currently capable, or will soon resume to be capable of parenting him, and whether it’s a reasonable assumption she’ll continue to be around to do so.
Which is also why it was a breach of duty to release manipulated pictures of her parenting (if it as actually her doing which I doubt). Better not release any picture at all, but be truthful in what you do release.
Yes, it’s dehumanising, but it’s part and parcel of having hereditary monarchies. There are a lot of reasons that having royal birthrights clashes with our modern ideas of democracy and human rights. Turns out, again and again, having brith duty does so, too.
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Admittingly, I don’t follow the royal family or know about protocol.
I’m curious about what “duty” they have to the media/public. For example, Harry & Meghan got a lot of flack for keeping the details of their child’s birth private. I understand that cancer is different than delivering a child, but why was someone giving birth to the 6th in line expected to share medical details while the future queen is not?
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Before Kate announced she had cancer, there was absolutely, positively the expectation that she explain her absence from public events.
But in answer to the main question, there is an agreement, formal or informal, that the BRF will trot out children from time to time for photo ops in return for not skulking in the backyard, school, etc for photos. The adults are (more or less) fair game for photographs in public; the children are not.
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Thanks for explaining.
If she’s on serious chemo, then she has incredible beauty workers helping her. Her hairline looks utterly natural. She doesn’t have that puffy look that people on chemo have. Her eyebrows are heavily drawn on, but if you look at photos of her from before she got sick, her eyebrows were drawn on then, too. If she were being treated with immunotherapy, that wouldn’t cause hair loss. But most abdominal cancers don’t get treated with immunotherapy alone.
I think she posted about being on chemo yesterday. I agree though, she looks fabulous.
They [quote=“lkg4answers, post:711, topic:3655865, full:true”]
I understand that cancer is different than delivering a child, but why was someone giving birth to the 6th in line expected to share medical details while the future queen is not?
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I’m confused, what medical details haven’t been shared? She has shared that she had abdominal surgery and then pathology determined cancer had been present so she is receiving chemotherapy treatment. Is that not sharing medical details?
I presume you want to know the type of cancer because that is all she has not shared, but there is no protocol that has been broken by sharing a basic diagnosis (we also do not know the King’s type of cancer and when the Queen was absent near the end of her life it was never specific in explanation beyond her mobility). If the Princess shared her diagnosis then certainly the internet would proceed to place a life expectancy bounty on her head and begin planning her funeral courtesy of Dr. Google and imagine how that would affect her young children.
Conversely, since you made the comparison to Prince Harry, they actually did break protocol by not having a child in the line of succession delivered by the BRF medical team, and still those children were given their birthright titles when their grandfather became King.
I’m unsure why you linked the 2; there was no quid pro quo in this regard.
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One thing that came to mind to me today after seeing a photo of her at this event - and her looking so picture perfect ….it bothered me that she or someone on her end, can accept sort of nothing less than “looking well and perfect”.
I sort of wanted to say to her “Kate, smile nice and get through it girl…. your sweatpants and cozy sweatshirt are waiting for you at home”.
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Because of the comment that they ‘got a lot of flack for keeping the details of their child’s birth private’ (the flack was not about the privacy, the flack was for breaking protocol) but the Princess doesn’t have to share her private medical details, when in reality Harry was allowed to break protocol without any effect and the Princess has shared medical details to the same degree as the King and late Queen.
Please don’t take my question/comment as any sort of judgement or expectation. My education with respect to the royal family comes 100% from the two threads on CC. Any flack that I referenced was what I read on the other thread.
I’m not even sure how the royals (or the media or public for that matter) define “duty.” Is duty an expectation or a requirement? Is protocol an expectation or a requirement?
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I obviously meant no disrespect and wasn’t passing judgement.
The pictures from one of my daughters high school graduation over a decade ago came up in facebook this week. I had just had my last round of chemo a few days before. Let’s just say I looked nothing like Catherine. Those beauty people earned every penny of their salary.
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She looks good, but she is so, so thin. She was slim before her health issues, but she looks to have lost quite a bit of weight. I imagine that appearing today took a lot out of her.
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I have a female friend ( she is young ) who just went through chemo/radiation and surgery for esophageal cancer. She never lost her hair during treatment even though it was a tough course. Some chemotherapies do not cause hair loss.
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