Kate Middleton reveals ‘life-changing' cancer journey has been a ‘rollercoaster'
Speaking at Colchester Hospital, Kate Middleton revealed the toll cancer takes on family and friends.
'It is a life-changing experience both for the individual patient but also for the families as well and actually it sometimes goes unrecognised, you don't necessarily, particularly when it's the first time, you don't appreciate how much impact it is going to have,' the princess told a group of users, volunteers and staff at the Cancer Wellbeing Centre.
The princess was diagnosed with an unknown form of cancer in March last year, in the same year as the King was also diagnosed with cancer.
On her visit to the hospital, she praised the centre's 'holistic' approach to the support it offers patients, relatives and carers, which includes counselling and dietary advice.
'There is this whole phase when you finish your treatment that you, yourself, everybody expects you, right you've finished your time, go, you're better, and that's not the case at all,' she added.
'You have to find your new normal and that takes time.'
After visiting the centre, the princess planted several coral-pink Catherine's Rose plants in the hospital's Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) wellbeing garden, which offers a restorative space for staff, patients and visitors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Covid alert! New 'ultra-catchy Frankenstein' variant has rocketed four-fold in just a month...experts warn it could be most infectious yet
A new Covid variant dubbed 'Stratus' has soared to dominance in the UK, with experts warning it could drive a wave of new infections. Stratus—scientifically known as XFG—is thought to be more infectious than previous Covid strains due to mutations that help it evade the immune system. Now, data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), shows Stratus has now become the dominant Covid strain in England. The variant has gone from accounting for about 10 per cent of all Covid cases in May to almost 40 per cent three weeks later in mid-June. Stratus—a descendent of the already super virulent Omicron—is what is known as a Frankenstein or 'recombinant' strain. This means it emerged when a person was infected with two Covid strains at once which then became a new hybrid variant. Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University told MailOnline both two strains of Stratus, the original XFG and spin off called XFG.3, are 'rapidly spreading'. 'The increased competitiveness of XFG and XFG.3 is likely due to new spike mutations which make these variants more able to evade the immune response,' he said. 'Given that immunity to Covid is waning in the population due to a decline in uptake of the spring booster jab and the reduction of Covid infections in recent months, more people will be susceptible to infection with XFG and XFG.3. 'This could lead to a new wave of infection but it's difficult to predict the extent of this wave.' However, he added that there is currently no evidence Stratus causes more severe illness and getting a Covid vaccine was 'very likely' to offer protection from severe illness and hospitalisation. Stratus' rise comes just a week after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the strain a 'variant under monitoring'. This designation means health authorities across the globe have been asked to help track the variant due its rising spread in different countries and the potential public health implications. Whilst assessing the overall risk of Stratus as 'low' the WHO said evidence pointed to the variant having significant growth advantage compared to other strains with it now accounting for 22 per cent of cases recorded globally. Nimbus—another new Covid variant also tipped to drive a wave of new infections —has also soared in recent weeks. That strain has gone from just 2 per cent of cases in April to 17 per cent in June, according to UKHSA data. However, overall Covid cases are on the decline compared to recent weeks. Just 5.4 per cent of Covid tests analysed by UKHSA in the week ending June 29 were positive for the virus. This is a slight fall from the 7 per cent of tests that came back positive the week prior, which as the highest positivity rate recorded so far this year. Neither Nimbus nor Stratus are thought to cause new symptoms compared to previous strains. However, medics have warned that anyone with a 'razor blade' throat could have Nimbus. Dr Michael Gregory, regional medical Director for NHS England in the North West recently said: 'The variant looks to be spreading rapidly within communities, with top symptoms being a "razor blade" sore throat and swollen neck glands.' But any Covid infection with the virus can still be deadly, especially for more vulnerable groups like the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.
Reuters
23 minutes ago
- Reuters
WHO pushes countries to raise prices on sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50%
LONDON, July 2 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization is pushing countries to raise the prices of sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco by 50% over the next 10 years through taxation, its strongest backing yet for taxes to help tackle chronic public health problems. The United Nations health agency said the move would help cut consumption of the products, which contribute to diseases like diabetes and some cancers, as well as raising money at a time when development aid is shrinking and public debt rising. "Health taxes are one of the most efficient tools we have," said Jeremy Farrar, WHO assistant-director general of health promotion and disease prevention and control. "It's time to act." The WHO launched the push, which it called "3 by 35" at the UN Finance for Development conference in Seville. WHO said that its tax initiative could raise $1 trillion by 2035 based on evidence from health taxes in countries such as Colombia and South Africa. The WHO has backed tobacco taxes and price rises for decades, and has called for taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks in recent years, but this is the first time it has suggested a target price rise for all three products. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the conference that the taxes could help governments "adjust to the new reality" and bolster their own health systems with the money raised. Many low and middle-income countries are coping with cuts to aid spending led by the United States, which is not attending the Seville conference. The U.S. is also in the process of withdrawing from the WHO. FROM $4 to $10 As an example, the initiative would mean a government in a middle-income country raising taxes on the product to push the price up from $4 today to $10 by 2035, taking into account inflation, said WHO health economist Guillermo Sandoval. Nearly 140 countries had already raised tobacco taxes and therefore prices by over 50% on average between 2012 and 2022, the WHO added. Sandoval said the WHO was also considering broader taxation recommendations, including on ultra-processed food, after the agency finalises its definition of that type of food in the coming months. But he added that the agency expected pushback from the industries involved. 'It's deeply concerning that the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to disregard over a decade of clear evidence showing that taxing sugar-sweetened beverages has never improved health outcomes or reduced obesity in any country,' said Kate Loatman, executive director of the International Council of Beverages Associations, adding that the industry was working on options to support health. 'The World Health Organization's suggestion that raising taxes will prevent alcohol-related harm is misguided,'said Amanda Berger, senior vice president of science and research at the Distilled Spirits Council, adding that it would not prevent alcohol abuse. The tax initiative is backed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and involves support for countries who want to take action.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ex-GP found guilty of sex offences after carrying out ‘unnecessary' genital exams
A former GP is facing jail after conducting 'unnecessary' genital examinations on patients, including two teenage boys. Gregory Manson, 56, has been found guilty of conducting groin exams even when his patients came in with coughs, headaches, back pain and knee sprains. Some of his accusers said he pulled down their underwear without asking their permission. Manson told jurors at Canterbury Crown Court that his medical examinations were 'not sexually motivated at all' and were instead based on ruling out rare diseases which he had misdiagnosed in the past. After originally working in South Africa, Manson qualified as a GP in the UK in 1998 and also worked as a GP trainer, programme director of GP training and GP appraiser for the General Medical Council before his dismissal in 2017. Manson, of Tower Way, Canterbury, denied 18 offences of sexual assault and six of indecent assault in respect of nine victims. On Thursday, he stared at the floor as jurors at Canterbury Crown Court returned their verdicts after 10 hours and 29 minutes of deliberation. Manson was convicted by majority verdict of 12 sexual assaults and four indecent assaults against nine men which took place over almost two decades. He was found not guilty of six offences, and two others were alternative charges which did not require verdicts. Judge Simon Taylor KC warned Manson: 'It will be a prison sentence, so you need to prepare for that.' During the trial, the prosecution noted that 'many examinations he performed were not medically justified' and that other GPs would not have carried them out. 'In truth Dr Manson took frequent opportunities to examine patients' genitals, not because he needed to but because he wanted to,' said Jennifer Knight KC, prosecuting. The earliest two victims of the former GP were brothers, and he was their doctor before and after they were 16, the court heard. They both remember being taken to an examination room next to the consultant room before being told to sit on the bed and pull down their trousers and boxer shorts. The older brother's medical notes suggests that he was seen 11 times by Manson between the ages of 14 and 19, and he remembered his genitals being examined on 'over half' of those visits. Ms Knight said: 'The examinations seemed to him (the victim) to be done professionally and as a young teenager, he assumed they were required. 'As he got older however, he became uncomfortable about these examinations and wondered whether they should be so frequent.' Their mother told investigators she never met the former GP when they were young teenagers as she would stay in the waiting room. Many of the examinations relate to what the former GP called 'well person checks' which were offered to new patients at the surgery he worked for, the court heard. Giving evidence last week, Manson said: 'Part of your work as a GP is disease prevention and health promotion, we do that all the time. 'You're looking for any pathology or disease that may be asymptomatic that somebody is not necessarily aware of.' A professor of forensic medicine and GP, Ian Wall, was 'surprised' that Manson considered testicular examination part of a new patient check during his review of Manson's medical notes, jurors heard during the trial. Manson added: 'When I worked in South Africa, particularly in many hospitals that didn't have facilities to further investigate things, your training was very much in examination and being thorough with examinations. An MRI was not available in Soweto.' He told the court about his early work as a GP and why losing patients had made him conduct more 'thorough' investigations. The former GP said that every doctor remembered their 'first death', and his was a man who had arrived with what was initially thought to be a stomach ulcer but was in fact an abdominal aortic aneurysm. 'When you have experiences like this and you examine an abdomen you are haunted,' said Manson. Opening the case, Ms Knight told jurors: 'Dr Manson performed unnecessary examinations of male patients' genitals without offering a chaperone or providing any proper explanation to the patients involved of the reason for the examination, and without wearing gloves. 'Dr Manson also failed to document in patients' notes the fact that such examinations had taken place or what his findings if any were.' Following his conviction, Will Bodiam from the Crown Prosecution Service said: 'These patients trusted Manson as he was their GP and he abused that trust in an appalling way, carrying out intimate examinations which were not all medically justified. 'They described their discomfort at what happened to them and some of them actively tried to avoid seeing Manson because of their previous experiences with him. 'On several occasions, the victims were not even given the option to consent to the examinations and had their underwear removed with no warning.' He added: 'This is not what patients should expect from their GPs.' Manson will be sentenced on July 4, and remains on bail until then, with new conditions of residence and that he does not enter an international airport, train station or port.
