King Charles: Royal family praised for sharing cancer diagnosis from outset

King Charles has started a series of treatments following his cancer diagnosis, and he's not the only royal to fall ill recently. At the moment, Kate, the Princess of Wales is recovering from abdominal surgery and, towards the end of last month it was reported, Sarah, the Duchess of York, has malignant melanoma, a form skin cancer.

The royal family has been widely praised for sharing the news from the outset of the King's diagnosis. In the past, the health of the reigning monarch was kept under wraps. For those living at the time of King George the sixth's reign, the news of his death on the 6th February 1952 likely came as a surprise. When King Charles' grandfather died at the age of 56, his lung cancer diagnosis was left out of the announcement completely.

With that in mind though, several members of the British royal family have broken records with their good health and longevity, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth the second both held, and still hold respectively, the title for the country's longest reigning monarch.