back in business, Charles III is “doing well” and is impatient to resume his public activities

In the United Kingdom, King Charles III, still undergoing treatment for his cancer, is gradually resuming his public engagements.

Late in the morning of Tuesday, April 30, King Charles III’s burgundy-colored royal Bentley parked in front of a center specializing in the treatment of cancer in the heart of London. This is his first major public appearance since February.

Accompanied by Queen Camilla, his step slow, but his face smiling, Charles III spends 40 minutes with patients and caregivers, he talks with them about the shock of the diagnosis, jokes about the fact that he too will receive his treatment in the afternoon. “I asked him ‘how are you’, he said ‘I’m fine'”, said after her visit Asha Millen, 60, treated for bone marrow cancer. Dressed in a bright blue suit and pink tie decorated with T-Rex designs, the king shakes a lot of hands, sits down, gets up, receives bouquets of flowers and hands out a few gifts. In short, business is picking up.

We do not know the nature of his cancer, discovered after prostate surgery in January, nor its state of progress. This information has never been made public. It must be said that the announcement of her illness in itself was already a small revolution, just like that of Princess Kate on March 22.

“Carefully calibrated” commitments

For three months, Charles continued to sign laws, see the Prime Minister and validate certain appointments. He will now resume a “certain number” commitments, “carefully calibrated”said Buckingham and “in close consultation with his doctors”. Moreover, these doctors find the progress made “very encouraging” and say to themselves “very optimistic about his recovery”.

On his agenda, a state visit by the Emperor of Japan is planned for June, then there are the commemorations of the landings and the traditional Trooping the Color military parade in mid-June. Very active before his cancer, the king was apparently eager to resume his public activities. According to his nephew Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne, he “was pushing” even those around him to do more.

Code name: “Menai Bridge”

However, since the announcement of his cancer, the English have heard a lot about the code name again, the “Menai Bridge”, a reference to a suspension bridge from the beginning of the 19th century, which connects the island of Anglesey to North Wales. It is this name which was chosen to designate the entire process which will begin in the event of the death of the king, and which defines all the procedures in the smallest details for the ten days which will follow. This includes announcing in the media (“Menai Bridge is down“), the transfer of his body to Westminster and the state funeral.

It’s a tradition in the royal family: all members have the code name of a bridge that will “fall” on the day they die. For Queen Elizabeth II, it was Operation “London Bridge”, for her husband Prince Philip, “Forth Bridge”. Preparations for Charles began upon his accession to the throne, but were revised due to his illness.