The health of Britain's King Charles: sporting accidents to cancer diagnosis

LONDON: Britain's King Charles, 75, has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and will receive out-patient treatment for the condition for an unspecified period.

The king has enjoyed good health for most of his life but he is no stranger to hospitals. His medical history features a catalogue of broken bones, mostly the result of accidents on the polo field in his younger years.

His passions for adventure and sport gave his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, and Buckingham Palace courtiers several frights, from near misses in the air, to an off-piste skiing disaster which killed one of his friends.

"If you occasionally live dangerously it helps you appreciate life," Charles once said.

Below is a list of some of Charles's past health issues and narrow escapes from danger.

1962

Charles had an appendix operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital when he was 13 years old. "I got here just in time before the thing exploded and was happily operated on and looked after by the nurses," he said.

1971

On his first parachute jump in 1971 he got his feet caught in the rigging. "It was rather a hairy experience," he said.

1980

During a polo match at Windsor, Charles was thrown and kicked by his pony and needed six stitches which left him with a small scar on his cheek. In Florida later that year, he was put on a saline drip after collapsing following a polo match.

1988

While in Switzerland on a skiing holiday, the then heir to the throne was part of a group of six skiers caught by an avalanche near Klosters. Charles survived by jumping onto a ledge. His friend, Hugh Lindsay, was killed in the accident.

1990

After falling from his horse during a polo match, Charles suffered two fractures in his right arm. He needed an operation later that year after one of the fractures failed to heal.

1991

Charles missed Royal Ascot due to what his hospital consultant called a "serious degenerative disc problem" in his lower spine.

1992

Charles had an operation on his left knee to repair torn cartilage following another polo injury.

1994

Charles was involved in a plane accident after a BAe 146 royal jet he was piloting slewed across a runway in Scotland. No-one was injured but it caused one million pounds of damage. An official report exonerated the then prince from blame but a royal spokesman announced in 1995 that Charles would not fly planes again.

1998

Charles broke a rib after he fell off his horse during a hunting accident. Later that year he had surgery on the cartilage of his right knee.

2001

Another fall from a horse left him with a fractured small bone in his shoulder. He was also knocked unconscious during a game of polo and taken to hospital on a stretcher as a precaution.

2003

Charles had a routine hernia operation at a London hospital. He joked to waiting reporters "hernia today, gone tomorrow" as he was discharged the following day.

2005

Charles retired from playing polo, the sport he is said to have described as "my one great extravagance".

2008

Charles had a non-cancerous growth removed from his face in a minor procedure.

2020

In the first wave of the pandemic, Charles contracted COVID-19. The illness was said to be mild.

2022

Charles had COVID-19 a second time in February 2022 but again the illness was mild. He had been vaccinated against it.

2023

In his autobiography, Charles's younger son, Harry, detailed how his father suffered from "constant neck and back pain" which he blamed on his numerous polo injuries.

Speculation about Charles's "sausage fingers" has lasted for years but was at its height last year. In a documentary screened in December, Charles jokes with his son William about his "sausage fingers". Experts have suggested a range of causes from oedema and arthritis to infections and allergies.

2024

Charles spent three nights in hospital in January after undergoing a corrective procedure for a benign enlarged prostate.

During his stay, medics spotted a separate issue of concern and Buckingham Palace announced he had been diagnosed with "a form of cancer" on Feb. 5, adding it was not prostate cancer.

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