King Charles and Princess Kate lead the way in cancer awareness

King Charles III and the Princess of Wales have turned personal health experiences into public service. By sharing their respective cancer diagnoses and treatment journeys, they have not only shown courage but also prompted a surge of interest in cancer awareness, inspiring the public to take their health seriously and seek timely guidance.

Often described as a great equalizer, cancer can affect anyone, regardless of title. King Charles and the Princess of Wales' respective health announcements, less than two months apart in 2024, were a reminder of the indiscriminate nature of the disease.

Two years ago, the day after World Cancer Day, Buckingham Palace revealed that His Majesty had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer and would be starting a schedule of treatments. At the time, it was noted that the King had chosen to share his diagnosis in order to "prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer".

The following month, Catherine announced that she herself was in the early stages of chemotherapy treatment, which she completed later that year. Both announcements resulted in a surge of traffic to cancer information pages.

Explaining the royals' "real-world impact," Amy Hirst, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, told HELLO!: "In the 24 hours following His Majesty's announcement, we saw a 33 percent increase to our Cancer information web pages, and over the course of the following week, there were over 730,000 visits to the Cancer Research UK web pages, which is a 12 percent increase compared to the usual weekly average."

There was also a spike in traffic the day the Princess of Wales revealed that she was undergoing treatment, with "over 200,000 visits" to Cancer Research UK's information web pages, which was "a 15.2 percent increase compared to the day before the announcement".

"His Majesty the King and the Princess of Wales have shown enormous courage in sharing their experience of a disease that does affect so many of us, and high-profile cancer cases often act as a prompt to encourage people to find out more or think about their own health, or pay attention to their own health a bit more closely," Amy said.