REBECCA ENGLISH: Like every cancer patient, Charles has good days and bad ones. He couldn't have looked happier today
He couldn’t have looked more happy — or proud — to be there.
His voice was strong and appeared to have regained its familiar gruff resonance as he recalled inspiring stories of courage, resilience and brotherly solidarity.
Nothing would have stopped the King from being in Portsmouth today to pay his own personal tribute to the heroes of D-Day.
King Charles acknowledges a standing ovation from the crowd as he walks on to the stage with Queen Camilla before delivering his speech
The King and Queen watched proceedings from the Royal Box after Charles had delivered his speech
As I revealed earlier this year, this week’s historic commemorations were always at the very top of the long list of commitments he wished to meet once he got the go ahead from his doctors to undertake public duties once again.
But his reassuring presence — which was greeted with a touching standing ovation — should not be taken for granted.
Amid the sovereign’s slew of recent appearances, it is sometimes easy to forget that he still has cancer and continues to undergo a gruelling, weekly treatment programme.
While I am told he is doing well and delighted that everything is very much ‘moving in the right direction’, he is still a patient facing a very current and serious health challenge.
It would be utterly patronising to say that such public appearances require a Herculean effort on his behalf.
His Majesty has inherited his late mother’s great personal determination, energy and sense of duty.
When I’ve seen him laughing, joking and charming his guests at recent events, you really wouldn’t know anything was wrong.
Besides, he would insist on a word such as Herculean being reserved for those tens of thousands of brave men who stood contemplating that ‘terrible leap of faith’ for freedom 80 years ago, not knowing whether they would live to see the sun rise again.
But like every cancer patient, he has good days and bad ones: mornings that see him tramping across his estates, or evenings working on paperwork late into the night, but others that also leave him feeling tired and under the weather.
All of which is perfectly normal and to be expected. Cancer treatment is, frankly, draining at times.
Queen Camilla is overcome with emotion as a war veteran recounts the horror of losing his best friend on the beaches of Normandy
King Charles greets Eric Bateman after he had delivered his emotional address in Portsmouth today
Earlier, William praised the 'bravery' of those who took part in the D-Day landings and read an extract from a letter by Captain Alastair Bannerman of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment
His staff work quietly to keep his worst work excesses in check, tweaking his diary appropriately (occasionally to His Majesty’s frustration).
While most onlookers wouldn’t have clocked it, he in fact arrived in Portsmouth to deliver his speech and meet veterans half-way through proceedings, whereas in a normal year he would have been there from beginning to end.
And in Normandy has asked Prince William to deputise for him at the keynote international commemoration at Omaha Beach, alongside world leaders including Presidents Biden, Macron and Zelenskyy, while he will focus his energies on the British ceremonial event at Ver-sur-Mer for his first public visit abroad since his diagnosis.
‘Given his other commitments on the day, it was simply advised that the international event later in the afternoon could be a step too far at this stage,’ a source tells me.
‘His Majesty is, of course, delighted that the Prince of Wales will be attending to represent the nation in his place.’
In his heart of hearts (even though he sometimes doesn’t want to hear it) the King knows that to achieve as much as he wants, he sometimes has to do a little less for the time being.
Present-day members of the Armed Forces in ceremonial uniform pay tribute to D-Day veterans in Portsmouth
His doctors simply want to ‘prioritise and protect’ his ‘encouraging’ progress and continued upwards recovery.
Quite frankly, it’s remarkable he is already doing as much as he is, both in front of and behind the scenes.
And if he’s not quite at the finishing line yet, that’s fine.
We hope he soon will be.
