King Charles

And actually targets are not being met
Cancer waiting time standards are meant to reflect the minimum we expect for cancer patients, and right now in England every cancer target is being missed, and has been missed for years.

The 62-day target hasn’t been met since 2015, over seven years ago, and currently only 59% of patients are meeting the standard*, well below the target of 85%. The NHS announced today that they are aiming for 70% of patients to begin treatment within two months of their urgent referral by March 2024. It’s positive that the NHS is turning their attention to improving performance against this important standard, but that the aim for this year is significantly below the formal target of 85% is both a reflection of how challenging the current situation is and the need to go further and faster to tackle long cancer waits
Imagining that cancer treatment for all is as good as that being provided for Charles is pure fantasy. Of course there are areas of excellence, and people who have early treatment like him, but like the rest of the NHS cancer treatment suffers from underfunding.

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

JenniferEccles

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

lucky

It's just dreadful, isn't it.
Just to get a point across. On and on and on.
😡

Yes Callistemon
It’s never ending.
I wasn’t going to bother commenting but I just hate this
‘he is lucky’ insistence.

I certainly don't begrudge the King his early treatment, the sooner the better as far as I am concerned. I have had bladder cancer and breast cancer in 2017-18 and I received very good treatment both times. With the bladder cancer within days of the diagnosis I started chemo and once I'd built my strength back up after that finished I had surgery. During a routine scan a year after the surgery a lump was discovered in my breast, I was referred immediately for a lumpectomy which they sent away for genome testing and luckily I was told that chemo would not be effective for the type of cancer I had and I had 3 weeks of radiotherapy insted. All this on the NHS.

JenniferEccles

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

OMG Of course he is lucky. Just over 50% of patients get treatment within 2 months. They are all lucky. Some wait longer, they aren't.

He's lucky in lots of other ways as well. He won't have the money worries many have, he will have staff to wait on him he'll be able to afford to heat his home and he won't worry about the rent or mortgage. He can step back from his job and not worry about losing it.

Of course all cancer diagnosis is awful. But let's not pretend that every experience of cancer treatment and every cancer journey is the same, because there are things which make both of those things easier for some people, people like Charles.

Money cannot ease all

Callistemon21

JenniferEccles

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

lucky

It's just dreadful, isn't it.
Just to get a point across. On and on and on.
😡

As someone who has had three separate cancers over a 35 year span I must be one of the "luckiest" people ever. Actually I do think I've been extremely lucky, the NHS has saved my life twice, private medicine the middle time. OK the NHS didn't provide a private room serviced by "silver service" dining, but it provided all that was needed to save me, and still provides ongoing care and surveillance.

Some people have experienced faster, more effective NHS care than others, should we downgrade everybody to the lowest common denominator in the pursuit of "fairness"?

You just know that many complaining about the King wouldn't bat an eyelid at many others getting the private or NHS fast track. Do we really believe Starmer, Sunak or even Corbyn would not get the super express track?

every cancer journey that bloody inane phrase again! Cancer is not a journey, it's a frightening destructive disease that tears into the hearts of families. Of course if Charles should die from this cancer his wealth and prompt treatment will mean so much less grief and angst for his family.... or maybe not!

Money doesn’t ease grief

JenniferEccles

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

Not everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected, fast track depends on a range of symptoms/results.
Last year l had 4 out of 5 symptoms that could indicate cancer and have been referred but not fast tracked, due to the previous cancer my GP is particularly
concerned but that doesn't count towards fast track. I've now been waiting since November for hospital appointment. My GP advised it may be 'some time' and to push for an earlier appointment myself.
It may well differ according to Health Authority.
I've no problem with King Charles getting treatment whenever/wherever, everyone deserves only best wishes in these circumstances.

I wish Charles all the best with his cancer treatment.
I would like everyone to be treated as quickly as him, and my family members were, but does having cancer make him lucky, however speedy his treatment is?

If he wasn’t being treated, would somebody else be treated instead?
Speed of treatment is sadly back to luck (my family) or money.

Have I said money eases grief?
Like every other service in the NHS there are areas of excellence where people receive absolutely the very best treatment. There are others where improvement is needed.

Why looking at the treatment he receives and saying he has been lucky upsets some so much I do not know? He has. Some are. Others are not.
Perhaps with such a prominent public figure we could take a good look at cancer treatment and ask why targets are not being met? But apparently that is too much for some people.

If you have had good or excellent treatment for cancer I'm pleased for you, but that isn't everyone's experience.

Glorianny

JenniferEccles

Oh not another thoughtless ‘Charles is lucky’ comment.
Look, he’s not lucky. The poor man has cancer.
Yes he has been diagnosed and treated swiftly but everyone is fast tracked if cancer is suspected.

OMG Of course he is lucky. Just over 50% of patients get treatment within 2 months. They are all lucky. Some wait longer, they aren't.

He's lucky in lots of other ways as well. He won't have the money worries many have, he will have staff to wait on him he'll be able to afford to heat his home and he won't worry about the rent or mortgage. He can step back from his job and not worry about losing it.

Of course all cancer diagnosis is awful. But let's not pretend that every experience of cancer treatment and every cancer journey is the same, because there are things which make both of those things easier for some people, people like Charles.

He's lucky in lots of other ways as well. He won't have the money worries many have, he will have staff to wait on him he'll be able to afford to heat his home and he won't worry about the rent or mortgage. He can step back from his job and not worry about losing it.

But we know all that Glorianny, it's the result of the political system that most people at the moment appear reluctant to want to change. And carping about Charles won't change anything, we need to have serious debate about what kind of society we want. He's just part of it, part of the status quo.

... and in the small hours of the night when thoughts of your own mortality haunt you - the what ifs, the fear of the unknown...I doubt his warm home and wealth will be of much comfort when he's pondering the outcome of his cancer. He' will be scared like any other human being.

Glorianny If Charles was a normal 75 year old he would not have to worry about losing his job because he would most probably be retired.

Luck will only come into it if he has a good response to treatment with the minimum of side effects. If he's in for the Much worse before it gets better scenario all the home comforts in the world won't help much until it's over.

Re the discussions about speed of starting treatment - DH's cancer was discovered when he had an MRI after an accident. It was a hard to diagnose cancer and he had a rare version (naturally) so it took over a year to confirm the suspicion. Not for want of effort by the team involved. Once it was confirmed treatment started the following day.

What if it wasn’t the King we’re discussing?

What if it were Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Tom Jones to name just a few elderly, very wealthy celebs who, if God forbid, were diagnosed with cancer or similar?

I imagine they would be using some of their money to pay for the speediest, most effective treatment they could source? And why not?

Why all these gripes about Charles? Yes he’s immensely wealthy, privileged, fortunate in so many ways.

And he also has cancer.

I agree that it is positive that more men will be getting checked.

There is an aspect that I think hasn't been considered here: not all cancers are equal. The very word generates fear but some cancers simply do not require rapid escalation while others need the fastest possible investigation, diagnosis and treatment. My family's current situation reflects both ends of the spectrum. Does that mean that one has received better care than the other? Not at all. Both have received appropriate care. I'm well aware that our experience isn't everyone's experience and sometimes the service falls short but bald statistics don't tell the whole story.

Doesn't matter how much money you have it can't buy health and happiness. Otherwise no multi millionaires would die or have unhappy lives.

If money could have kept my husband alive we would have gone into debt . But it wouldn't have . And can't complain about the NHS care he had and our wonderful McMillan nurse. When my husband had cancer it was 1 in 3 got it now it's 1 in 2. And that's down to people being more aware. But what annoys me is the amount of people who don't go for cancer screening when invited. When I had my mammogram last year 6 people hadn't turned up nor phoned to cancel . 6 people could have had those appointments. My brother knows someone who tests the faecal samples for bowel cancer and said they only get 60% of tests back out of all the kits they send back. It's not as if it's hard to do today's test kits are better than my first one at 60. It was a large cardboard strip with 3 flaps and 6 cardboard strips to smear 2 samples of poo under each flap and needed 3 bowels movements before you could sent it off. Today it's just a tube with liquid in and you just smear bit of poo to fill in the groves on the stick and put into the tube and send off.

We are lucky we can get screening for some cancers. But some people either are scared or just can't to be bothered. But they will be the ones jumping up and down demanding help straight away.

A friend of my late mom refused to have a mammogram . She found a lump 9 months after her invitation for the test by then it was to late to save her . If she had the mammogram they would have saved her.

If you get invited to have tests done don't hesitate it could save your life. Unfortunately for my husband he's cancer appeared very quickly and there was not treatment for grade 4 malignant melanoma. He was given 5 years in 2001 and lived 3 But now there is treatment that can extend your life with that cancer . Which may same weird but that makes me happy .

Money would have certainly eased an already terrible situation when my daughter was ill.
No scrambling around finding parking, no bus rides to and from the hospital; all manner of things.
The outcome would have been the same though.

Money eases the practical pressures. We spent a chunk of our savings in the 6 months my husband was being investigated, then treated. The money went on a gardener, dog Walker, cleaner, expensive ready meals, sustenance at the hospital cafe where I spent long days - to name a few. We took our children and their families away for a lovely holiday together.
We were so fortunate to have savings that eased our way.
One of the many positives at The Christie, our wonderful cancer hospital is the free parking.

I could fill the thread up with things that more money would have helped with, but then that is the same across the board, and part of life.

Yes MissA, despite the tough times, we knew we had blessings to count

I'm glad you had some good times through, in between the horror... you know...

Message withdrawn at poster's request.