WHAT great news to start the week!
The Princess of Wales has revealed she has completed her course of preventative chemo.
The end of cancer treatment is a huge milestone.
Regardless of the initial diagnosis, the type of chemo, whether you have surgery or not, the significance and impact of this news should not be underestimated.
It has huge physical significance, but often a bigger factor for many cancer patients is the emotional impact.
The big question is typically, ‘Now what?’.
For those fortunate to have escaped being touched by the disease, it might seem pretty straightforward.
Get the party poppers out, the banners and bunting and crack open the Champagne!
In short, draw a big black line under the whole experience and crack on. Get living. It’s done, dusted… time to pick up where you left off.
You are a cancer survivor. You are changed in ways you may not yet be aware of – both wonderful but unsettling too.
And yes, it goes without saying, there is so much to celebrate.
But, can I share my more nuanced thoughts as someone who went through primary breast cancer fourteen years ago, and remembers so vividly what those early weeks and months post-treatment felt like?
To Princess Kate and the many others like her who will have received this lovely news, I want to say, take a breath, a moment to find your feet.
You’re standing on new ground. Firm and solid, I hope – but new ground nonetheless.
You are a cancer survivor. You are changed in ways you may not yet be aware of – both wonderful but unsettling too.
You need to take time to recalibrate and find your new centre. Your priorities and perspective may have changed forever.
The Princess of Wales talks about focusing on the things that matter most, the things that bring her the most joy.
She acknowledges just how hard the last nine months have been and her words will have an enormous impact on those who need it most.
We need honesty, truth and vulnerability when it comes to sharing our experiences of cancer.
We need tools to enable us to embrace and celebrate our healing whilst also grieving our old selves, and our life before cancer.
Gently does it, that’s what I say.
Let the tears flow and embrace the belly laughs.
Celebrate the resilience you didn’t know you possessed and acknowledge the courage still required to get you through any follow up scans or physical niggles you might experience.
It’s all normal. There will be ebbs and flows and you won’t believe how quickly time passes, how physical strength returns and in cases like mine, eyelashes regrow.
You will experience triggers, but you will enjoy glimmers too.
You’ll be high on life and for good reason – you know what really matters.
You’ll think back to those dark days and those sleepless nights when you barely dared dream of ‘normal life’.
Look to the future, say yes to life, don’t allow anyone to diminish your experience.
If you’re anything like me, you will have vowed that if you were lucky enough to survive, you would celebrate the everyday routine, the chores, the To Do lists.
You would never take the ‘magical mundane’ for granted again. And, do you know what? Deep down, you won’t.
But you will experience wobbly days, and that’s okay too. They’re allowed. They are necessary and they are part of the healing process.
Welcome to the club, Kate. You are a survivor.
Actually let’s not call it a club, it’s the most incredible community and it’s one that is always there to support you when you need it.
Look to the future, say yes to life, don’t allow anyone to diminish your experience.
We are all each others’ teachers.
Keep sharing and showing your beautiful, warm human side. There is always room for another virtual hand to hold.
By Arthur Edwards
WOW! In 40 years of covering the Royal Family I have never seen anything like Catherine’s video.
It’s a first for the royals and these wonderful three minutes of footage brings home just how grateful this young family are that their mum is over the worst.
Finally, after nearly six months of chemotherapy, Catherine is looking forward to being cancer-free.
And joy and relief for the royal couple and their amazing children oozes from every frame.
Once William told me the reason he and Kate took their time getting engaged was because he wanted to make sure his marriage would last forever.
Watching Kate snuggle into her husband’s shoulder as they sat on a pile of logs in the pine woods at Holkham beach, in Norfolk, says to me that they are still very much in love.
Maybe even more so now than in 2011 when I photographed them kissing — twice — on the Buckingham Palace balcony after their wedding.
And I am sure following the toughest few months of their 13-year marriage it will last forever.
Because they have survived the dark days — and they have a bright future to look forward to.
You see a family celebrating, as Catherine says in her voiceover, the simple things in life — stuff that ordinary families do when they are together.
Picnicking, playing cards, having fun and laughter — running into the sea with your clothes on, not a care in the world.
The spot they picked to record the video last month is a firm favourite with the royals, who used to have a summer house there. It is where I photographed the Queen Mum walking her dogs along the shore. And for this next generation of royals that spot will have many happy memories — especially for the children who will always remember this was where they learned that their Mama was getting better.
In 1969, Prince Philip persuaded the Queen to allow cameras to follow them and the children in what was a groundbreaking documentary.
Back then, the royals seemed stilted and a bit remote — a family with a life that most of their subjects could not even imagine.
But here Catherine, William, George, Charlotte and young Louis are a normal family with the same problems the rest of us have to go through.
The kids look so happy that Kate is well and getting slowly back to work, back to the school run and all those things that mothers do but we take for granted.
In the video, she goes on to say simply loving and being loved is so important in life.
With Catherine and the King both having treatment, it shows that cancer doesn’t care who you are — whether a sovereign, a princess or a pauper, this disease is a lottery.
Like millions of families, I know that when you lose someone close who you dearly love from this terrible illness, it’s heartbreaking.
But Catherine has shown the world that you can survive cancer if you catch it early.
I have certainly missed photographing Her Royal Highness on royal engagements this year.
And I am sure William cannot wait to have her back by his side when they travel at home and abroad.
The last time I took Catherine’s picture was at Trooping the Colour in June when she appeared in the carriage and on the balcony at Buckingham Palace.
This beautiful woman is one of the brightest stars in the Royal Family.
Everything she does is followed throughout the world and she gets more publicity than any other royal.
In this incredible video, Kate looks happy and well but obviously she’s not completely ready for full-time work.
Bear in mind she will be doing this work for the rest of her life and there will be no retirement for her.
So it’s in everybody’s interest that the Princess gets fully fit before she goes properly back to work.
I, for one, am happy to wait however long it takes — even if she won’t be back at work properly until Remembrance Sunday or even Christmas for her magical carol service at Westminster Abbey.
But when winter is not far away, seeing this lovely family so happy and blessed in the Norfolk sunshine should cheer us all up — and give the country hope for the future.
