Camilla cancels trip to London to nurse King Charles back to full health as he awaits surgery for enlarged prostate
QUEEN Camilla cancelled her flight back to England yesterday to help nurse King Charles at his Scottish home as he awaits surgery.
Camilla revealed the 75-year-old monarch was “fine” and “looking forward to getting back to work”.
She was due to jet back to London but cancelled it after Charles was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate on Wednesday.
Instead, she travelled back to Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate, to be with her husband, who is under doctor’s orders not to undertake anything too strenuous.
Camilla, 76, gave an update on the King’s health as she returned to work yesterday for a visit to Aberdeen Art Gallery.
She said: “He’s fine, thank you very much. Looking forward to getting back to work.”
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Charles was diagnosed with the benign prostate condition on Wednesday after suffering symptoms and contacting doctors.
He wanted to make his ailment public in the hope of encouraging more men to check whether they could have the condition.
There has been a significant increase in the number of searches on the NHS website after the King shared his diagnosis.
The NHS said that, after the news broke, visits to its prostate enlargement webpage soared to 16,410 compared to just 1,414 the day before — 11 times higher.
And Prostate Cancer UK said the number of men using its online prostate risk checker doubled compared to last week, with 6,478 visits after the royal’s announcement.
Chiara De Biase, director of influencing at the charity, said: “We’re thankful to the King for sharing that he is to be treated in hospital next week for an enlarged prostate.
“Raising awareness of prostate health is very important and already we are seeing that, compared to the same 24-hour period last week, the number of people completing Prostate Cancer UK’s online risk checker is up by over 97 per cent.”
Google’s trending score for the word “prostate” has also surged from eight to 100, meaning a 13-fold increase in UK searches on the platform.
The term “benign prostate enlargement” increased 50-fold from two to 100.
At least a third of men older than 50 have an enlarged prostate, equal to more than 3.6million blokes in England and Wales, with the rate more like 80 per cent in over-70s.
Around 15,000 prostate resection procedures, like the one the King is expected to have, are carried out each year on the NHS.
Charles is set to spend a night in hospital next week for the corrective procedure and could be missing from public engagements for up to a month.
However, he will continue to carry out his constitutional role and deal with government red boxes.
He would usually spend his January break fishing, walking or painting in the Scottish Highlands but is ordered to put his feet up until surgery next week.
Camilla returned to royal duties 50 miles away as she opened a “safe space” for domestic violence sufferers at the gallery.
Onlookers said she appeared full of cheer and displaying the “keep calm and carry on” approach often associated with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.
Although the King has postponed a string of engagements, there is currently no need for any senior royals to step in as Counsellor of State, the Palace says.
But there are fears the Royal Family are thin on the ground, with Princess Kate also out of action for medical reasons and William scaling down on his engagements too.
Prince Andrew was stripped of all royal roles in disgrace over his links to dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his sex abuse claims payout to Virginia Giuffre.
And Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals almost four years ago to live in the United States.
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Camilla will be working in Swindon on Monday.
The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Anne also have a string of engagements in the diary.
