King Charles’ cancer treatment ‘will continue into next year’ with the palace remaining ‘optimistic’ as his recovery ‘moves in a positive direction’

King Charles will also need cancer treatment in 2025, it was revealed today.

A Buckingham Palace source has said the 76-year-old’s health is still being ‘managed’ but is ‘moving in a positive direction’.

But His Majesty plans to return to a full program of public duties next year.

This includes foreign visits, the insider said.

“His treatment has progressed in a positive direction and as a managed measure the treatment cycle will continue into the new year,” the Palace source said.

Charles hosted members of the royal family at Buckingham Palace for a pre-Christmas lunch yesterday. Today the King and Queen are holding their last public event of the year.

He also recently expanded his engagement, including a visit to Apple’s London headquarters and a meeting with CEO Tim Cook.

“You could almost forget at the start of the year that this was a man who had the shock of a cancer diagnosis,” a source told Sky News.

Yesterday, the Prince and Princess of Wales released their Christmas card, featuring a photo of the couple with their three children in Norfolk, in a nod to Kate’s own battle with cancer.

The card was posted online at 2pm, three hours after it emerged that the family would not attend the royal family’s traditional pre-Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace today.

Prince William and Kate are instead said to be looking forward to spending time with members of the royal family at the Sandringham estate as usual over Christmas.

The card image shows William and Kate in Norfolk, where Anmer Hall became a safe haven for the Princess as she recovered from cancer treatment earlier this year.

It comes from the video Kate released in September confirming she would return to public duties after completing her chemotherapy treatment.

The social media post read: ‘Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas’ – with the words on the card: ‘Wishing you a very Happy Christmas and New Year.’

MailOnline understands that the Waleses are already in Norfolk with their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and that they always intended to be.

It has also been made clear that William and Kate’s absence from the lunch was in no way linked to Prince Andrew’s withdrawal due to the ongoing Chinese ‘spy scandal’.

The confirmation from the royal source was given just before 11am, around the exact same time Charles was spotted arriving at Buckingham Palace for lunch.

Kate, who is gradually returning to public events after revealing in September that she had completed cancer treatment, was last seen with her family on December 6 at Westminster Abbey for her ‘Together at Christmas’ carol service.

Four days later, on a visit to Picton Barracks in Wiltshire, William said he was looking forward to Christmas but was “not ready” for Christmas and would be celebrating with 45 relatives at Sandringham “all in one room”, although they were “normally are spoken spoken’. ‘.

George, Charlotte and Louis have been on Christmas break since last Friday, when Lambrook School near Windsor, which they all attend, was closed until January 8.

William and Kate have been pictured at the luncheon in previous years, including in 2018 and 2019. The event was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic.

It comes after William described the past year, which saw his wife and father treated for cancer, as ‘brutal’.

The prince spoke candidly about the royal family’s major health problems in an interview while in South Africa last month. He said 2024 has been “probably the hardest year of my life” and a “terrible” experience.

When asked about his year on November 7, William replied: “Honestly, it’s been terrible. It has probably been the hardest year of my life. So it’s been really hard to get through everything else and keep everything on track.

“But I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my dad, because he’s addressing the things that they’ve done. But from a personal family perspective, it was, yes, it was cruel.”

Kate appeared in a very personal video with her family in September to confirm her return to public duties after completing a course of chemotherapy.

The Princess’s heartfelt message about her cancer journey was delivered through images of the Waleses and their children enjoying the outdoors, and she said her focus was now on ‘doing what I can to stay cancer-free’.

She described the past nine months since her serious health problems began as “incredibly hard on us as a family” and how “the cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone”, with the experience giving her a “new perspective on everything”. ‘

The king’s cancer diagnosis was announced in February and he is receiving outpatient treatment for an undisclosed form of the disease, but will return to fuller duties and travel abroad more next year.

Yesterday, the Duke of York pulled out of the King’s pre-Christmas lunch as he continues to be haunted by his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

Andrew decided not to attend the meeting after speaking to his ex-wife and close friend Sarah, Duchess of York, according to a source.

The King’s brother had already withdrawn from membership of the senior royals at Sandringham over the festive period.

It was previously revealed during a High Court hearing that alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who was expelled from Britain, was said to have been a ‘close’ confidant of Andrew.

Mr Yang, named after the anonymity order that was revoked on Monday, has insisted it was “completely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage and that he “did nothing wrong or illegal”.

Earlier this week, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared a rare photo of their two children as part of a series of images for their official Christmas card.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were shown outdoors about to embrace Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet as their son and daughter ran into their arms.

The couple have rarely put their children in the spotlight and the photo does not show their faces as Lilibet, three, approaches her father while five-year-old Archie sprints to his mother.

It appears the couple, who stepped down as working royals and moved to California in 2020, may be in a park as their three dogs are in the photo.

The card, sent by email, features six images with the message: ‘On behalf of the Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Archewell Productions and Archewell Foundation, we wish you a very Happy Holidays. and a joyful new year.’

The card is intended for professional use by the couple and their team, with the Sussexes sending a separate card to their closest family and friends, which will remain private.