We are used to seeing photos of The Princess of Wales, such as above, showing her offering practical and sensible help where needed. But talking to a friend working t the pqlace at the Palace, he was raging at how badly the Palace was handling the news about the Royals’ cancer treatment.
This was so unlike him, it got me thinking as normally anyone at the Palace is very discreet. However, once I had seen the video, featuring the Waleses and their children, released to mark a milestone in Kate’s cancer treatment; the video made me wonder if the NHS had manipulated it to distract public interest. They don’t want questions about the “kinder” treatment Kate must have received, as currently cancer treatment in the UK lags behind European care – as highlighted in Lord Darzi’s report.
The video showed Kate, William, and their children – all in soft-focus – playing on a private day out.. Not the Wales’ usual dignified behaviour. Ex-MP Ann Widdecombe was spot-on when she described the video in the Daily Express as “cheesy, tacky, embarrassing and naff. If Meghan Markle had produced a video in which she floated along, the star in her own production, talking about journeys, staying hand-in-hand and all you need is love, it would have been par for the course, but how on earth could sensible, down-to-earth Kate have done it?”
Releasing the video
As a fellow cancer survivor, I was eager to see what Kate had to say. But instead of learning what she had found helpful, we were subjected to cringe-making platitudes, totally different from the usual sensible comments Kate made when promoting Heads Together and her other charities.
Talking about “cancer journeys” smacked of wishy-washy NHS-speak, and gave no comfort to someone going through treatment. Surely, when you have cancer, you find ways of dealing with problems such as drug side effects. And you are keen to tell others about what worked for you. This video gave us nothing.
Heaven knows what the rest of the Royals made of it. It is easy to imagine Princess Anne shrugging and then going to feed the horses. And the late Prince Philip would certainly have had some appropriate comments.
Survivors learn from each other
Every cancer journey is supposed to be different, but survivors soon learn that we all experience similar side effects, and exchange ideas and tricks we discover, to help us through, It might be a Nurse telling you to sip ginger tea to help with nausea (it worked for me), or copying a friend who told me to wear something colourful/ I wore red shoes to cheer myself up when going through boring radiotherapy. These amused me and staff so much so that a photo of them appeared in an exhibition about “The cancer journey” mounted in The Royal Marsden.
I remember a friend, who had gone through cancer treatment, giving me a book showing photos of animals doing funny things; this was ideal to leaf through when I was washed out during treatment, too tired to hold a book
.One thing I did learn from a press clipping about the Princess was she had enjoyed the lights; In her London Clinic room, I remember Sister showing me how they had special light effects installed in the rooms, to keep patients amused when they were tired.
But anyone who wanted to know what helped The Princess (we all do) was doomed to disappointment. Nothing in the video gave us anything we could copy – just a lot of cringe-making and patronising talk. It was obvious the NHS had orchestrated the whole shoot to deflect attention away from the deficiencies of UK cancer treatment. By focusing on the Waleses and their family, they hoped to stop anyone from asking awkward questions such as “why can’t I have this?”
Lord Darzi’s recent report painted a depressing picture of how behind the rest of the world the UK is when it comes to cancer treatment – and if the Princess is being muzzled and not allowed to tell us what worked for her – I don’t see much improvement.
Using the Royals for politics
From time to time, (more often than we think) the government ‘uses’ the Royal family for political reasons. State visits are a case in point. with the late Queen frequently asked to host people like the Ceausescus, Assad, the Trumps, etc. because we wanted to do trade deals with their country..
Today, it seems the Royal family are being “used” by the Government to divert attention away from deficiencies in NHS cancer services. Lord Darzi points out with chilling clarity that “The UK has higher cancer mortality rates than other countries”
When every cancer patient wants to survive – this is not welcome news.
. Cancer patients are only too keen to share
One thing that unites cancer survivors is our willingness to share tips that help us get through treatment. Kate could easily share what helped her – the information doesn’t have to be intrusive, but would help improve things for others.
Patronising videos stating the obvious about cancer treatment being a long and complex process, don’t give us hope. What we want to know is what helped through grueling treatment. Yet the Royals, and Kate in particular, have been very reticent about treatment. Somehow, that yucky video of the Wales’ family struck troubling feelings with many.
The Prince of Wales has described the end of Catherine’s chemotherapy treatment as “good news”, but added his wife still has “a long way to go”.
But
There is an unacceptable variation in waits for treatment of different cancers in England, an exclusive analysis for BBC News by Cancer Research UK shows.
Patients with cancers affecting the head and neck, bowel and gynaecological areas are the most likely to face long waits – just over half are seen within the target of 62 days
Whistleblower
I was treated both at The Royal Marsden and The London Clinic.
At the Royal Marsden I felt i was on a production line, and given numerous drugs; I developed massive allergies, which were patronisingly dismissed by a senior Consultant as “it’s your age”.
I went to France to sort out better treatment, and on my return was treated like a whistleblower. At the same time my marvelous insurance policy, which had paid for all my care, came to the end of its 5-year care plan., So I had to transfer to the NHS. The Marsden tried to tell me this was not allowed and i would have to pay. So- I asked Andie Burnham, Minister for Health at the time, to intervene on my behalf. This was NOT popular with the Marsden] who were forced to follow the rules and treat me on the NHS.
But I should never have been forced to take such action. And how many patients were lucky enough to be working as a journalist so were able to access a Minister?
What needs to happen
That is why it would be so helpful if, instead of issuing cringe-making videos, we could hear from the Princess of Wales what helped her through cancer treatment; things others could copy – or is the NHS worried that we all might ask for these and the service can’t cope?
Instead of announcing £1.5 billion extra to help bring down NHS waiting lists (which we all know isn’t going to happen, as there aren’t enough trained staff), the NHS should take note of Lord Darzi’s recommendations and copy what is being done in Europe – as I saw they are doing at The London Clinic?