King to ‘pause’ cancer treatment for Aust tour
Source: X
The King is to pause his cancer treatment during his high-profile tour to Australia.
Royal doctors gave the 75-year-old monarch the OK to briefly halt the weekly cycle so he can fly to the opposite side of the globe for his key visit next week.
The King and Queen’s trip to Australia will be followed by a state visit to Samoa in the South Pacific.
The monarch, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February, will have treatment until he departs, and and resume the outpatient appointments when he returns to the UK, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
He will be away for 11 days, with the tour covering nine days with two days of travel either side. His entourage will include, as is usual for the King’s official overseas tours, his doctor.
The long-haul trip with the Queen is a major milestone for the King.
It will be his most significant overseas tour since his cancer diagnosis and his first to Australia as the nation’s head of state, looking set to prompt debate about the future of the monarchy in the country and whether it should become a republic.
Australian retired football player and human rights activist Craig Foster revealed he had turned down an invitation to a community barbecue with the King and Camilla.
The ex-Socceroo, who is the former co-chairman of the Australian Republic Movement, thanked NSW Premier Chris Minns for inviting him, but rejected the place.
“No thanks. I look forward to being ‘in the presence of’ our first Aussie head of state,” he posted on X.
“When we put our big pants on, as a country.”
Meanwhile, Graham Smith, chief executive of the UK anti-monarchist organisation Republic, revealed he has travelled to Australia, ready to stage events and protests in Sydney and Canberra during the tour.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has a long-held aim of holding a referendum on breaking ties with the British monarchy and his country becoming a republic.
The plans were put on hold after Australians overwhelmingly rejected a plan to give greater political rights to Indigenous people in a referendum held last year.
The King and Queen arrive in Australia on October 18. During their trip, they will meet locals and tuck into produce at the community barbecue – a staple of Australian culture – in western Sydney.
They will also be officially welcomed by Albanese in Canberra, meet two Australian professors hailed for their pivotal research on melanoma skin cancer and review the Australian naval fleet in Sydney Harbour.
The program of engagements has been designed to give the King time to rest and recover from the many hours he will spend flying during his trip.
After the Australian leg, the King head to Samoa for events looking at sustainability and biodiversity, while the Queen will focus on her interests of literacy and domestic violence and sexual abuse.
The King will then gather with world leaders in Samoa’s capital and only city Apia for his first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting since he became sovereign and head of the Commonwealth.
The Queen is reported to be arranging a pre-tour break with friends this week while the King is spending most of his time in Scotland to conserve his energy ready for his travels.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.