The difference between cancer life as a royal and as a "lesser mortal"

[sixtyandsomething]

not to derail other threads..

I have nothing against the Princess of Wales, I am sure she is a lovely person and I wish her well. however, let's not pretend she is facing the same struggles as the rest of us.

I bet you £10 she hasn't had to deal with any of these! (feel free to add your own)

-40+ calls to DWP, often being left on hold for 2 hours or more
-many months delay in benefits being processed, leaving you without any income at all
-DWP advising you to "find a food bank"
-struggle up the hill on crutches to get a bus to chemo
-appointments delayed and cancelled, blood tests lost and repeated, regular system "crashes" leaving medical staff with no access to your notes.
-never seeing the same medical professionals twice.
-consultant appointments cancelled when you have already travelled several hours to the hospital
-telephone appointments you have to sit and wait by the phone for, for the whole day
-worry on crammed full bus when you are CEV
-getting off bus because it is too full
-getting of bus because you are vomiting
-sitting on the pavement for 3-4 hours after chemo in the dark and rain, because you are CEV and don't want to get back on a crammed bus in the rush hour
-commuters swearing at you because you move too slowly
-commuter kicking you out of the way because you move to slowly, and doing it with an air of indignation, like they feel seriously injured by having to touch something so disgusting with their foot
-minimum 18 hour wait in A and E before being admitted with infection - once it was 28 hours
-further many hour wait in ER before being admitted to wards.
-spending night on chair in corridor, after being admitted to a ward
-being asked to vacate chair in corridor so doctor can perform ECG on patient who is currently standing up with nowhere to sit
-being warned by hospital staff to sleep in your glasses so they are not stolen
-having to buy a constant stream of new clothes, and having to go to charity shops - on steroids? go up two sizes, no chemo? go down 3- surgery? get front opening everything, in a range of sizes.
-not being able have a clean the house, wash up, open the window even, without calling a friend to come and help.
-council refusing to empty your bins because you are not capable of moving them to the right place at the right time
-giving away your pets because you can't take care of them, or afford them
-being told the waiting list to see a physiotherapist is around a year

I could go on

I am so grateful for the treatment I have had, and I hope the Princess of Wales does well and recovers, but the two situations are not the same, even slightly, even if the disease is.

Honestly the issue here isn't that she is Royal, it's that she rich.
No body who is rich would face the struggles you've outlined ans that's not just with cancer, it's being ill generally or I suppose life in general is easier when you have money.

My dad after complex hip replacement was given medication clear on his files he’s allergic to, hallucinated and fell out of bed, was very needlessly poorly. Years later he had agonising bone cancer. After having a heart attack he was hospitalised. A few weeks later he was manhandled down the stairs by a group of professionals and ‘able to use stairs’ ticked off. My mum was asked if she’d be ok and she said yes so they didn’t organise any home help. I later told the hospital that they should give any shell shocked (especially elderly relative the information in writing as they have no idea what they’re agreeing to. The hospital agreed and began doing that. So on the day dad is to go home he’s got up and sat in a chair in the morning. After quite a few hours u call to see when he’s coming. And a few hours after that call again. The head nurse a bit crossly asks me why I care and I say because his bone cancer makes it very painful to sit like that for a long time.Oh! Says nurse. I’m so sorry I didn’t know.
The nurse in charge of the ward had no idea my dad had bone cancer.
I’ll spare you details of the state I saw other patients in. Always scores of nurses and docs chatting behind the desk.

For me, the issue is that she's rich because we pay for her and her family. Most random rich people are not funded by us.

Realistically as both Charles and Catherine's cancers were discovered during (as far as we know) routine surgery most people would still be on the waiting list for the ops with the cancers growing away in the background. So yes that's an enormous difference.

She's also rich because she comes from a very wealthy family. Even if she didn't belong to the RF she'd still be getting the best possible treatment, it'd just be being paid for with 'Middleton money'.

Even if she hadn't married William, it's not likely that she'd be on a breadline somewhere today. Coming from money it would have been highly likely (as a PP said earlier) that she would have 'married money' anyway.

@ExpatAl so the NHS needs sorting out

I’m so sorry to hear of all your hardships and cancer battle, OP. 💐

Every statement you have made is completely valid.

Every single one of you that’s coming for the OP and having a “go”, because let’s be honest, that is exactly what it is, should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves.

@sixtyandsomething yes, it is a competition, you're correct. You're experience is horrendous and I do not get why anyone would contradict your experience.
This is the mess the tories and the elite have made of this country and it's very deliberate.
My daughter has three young children, she copes with various conditions. She doesn't get the nanny helping, nor the chauffeur taking the children to school, no chef for them either.
Of course none of us wish anything bad on her or anyone else but her treatment and circumstances are not the norm.

There are some charities that provide transport for Cancer patients. Please try to access them. Also talk to social services at the hospital or ring them, as they provide care for you at home, cleaning etc.

I wish you all the very best with your treatment and for the future. 💐

There are some really shitty replies on here. I am not tempted to quote them as I don’t want to be involved in insult ping-pong; if they are going to misinterpret OPs post and make shitty comments then they are hardly going to hold back with me.
OP,please focus on the supportive comments and I wish you all the best as you face unimaginable challenges. 🌺

I’m in California, @sixtyandsomethingand I subscribe to Apple News.
While I don’t get all the British news, I do get the Times and a couple others.
And they have been the most suck-uppiest, maudlin, smarmy, over-the-top “oh she’s sooo wonderful and heroic, just loook at her, loook at her dress, loook how she’s smiiiling, blah blah blah…” It’s ridonkulous.
And the American media are right there with them: Vanity Fair, Daily Beast, Newsweek, the abhorrent New York Post (owned by Murdoch) and those online sites who desperately want us to take them seriously, but are fluttering all over themselves to use every suckup adjective to describe Kate.
I’m very sorry you feel this way and I’m even sorrier for what you’ve been through, but I assure you — the vast majority of us think the media have made horse’s asses out themselves and therefore the RF.
I call it the kissass disease.
They will not be remembered well.
Your courage, however, will. ❤️

Exactly this. Probably not even on the waiting list for the OP yet, but on one to see a specialist in the first place.

Are you serious? I would be astonished if any healthy person would want to swap places with her at the moment.

Yes sadly I can believe that. Have had similar experiences with family members. It’s shocking and frightening.

Maybe practically she has an easier time than the average person but physically and emotionally her journey is just the same as everyone else’s. The terror she must feel as a mum to young children is something that is common to everyone and money and privileged make no difference whatsoever! I don’t think she’s ever compared herself to anyone, she simple sympathised with other people. How unkind to refer to people as ‘that pair’, would you like it?

PRIVACY is the biggest difference! Her diagnosis was quite frankly no one else’s business and it was disgusting that the media and people gossiping made her go public. I cited for her when she made that initial statement and felt disgusted by the media and all the conspiracy theorists!

Of course. But life for anyone in the UK shouldn’t be made harder when you’ve got cancer. The illness is bad enough without having to worry about about loosing wages etc. No one is asking for housekeepers and diamonds. Just to have a safety net that protects them in their time of need and prompt treatment .

I hope you are getting better OP. When I hear about how brave she is I think about all the people that are still waiting without treatment or even diagnosis.
They are so rich and powerful that they could change things for people like you if they really wanted.
Hopefully her experience of this horrible illness will attract donations to the cancer charities at least. I wish her well but with the desperate situation with cancer care in the NHS, her fast diagnosis and likely best treatment money can buy, must be hard to watch for the people strugling to get minimal care and support.

Just to point out that the bold isn't me!

The British press give the impression that the British are ardent royalists. A lot of us are not and we couldn’t give two hoots what the RF do. The press really brownnose them constantly. It’s sickening.
There is so much sycophancy and admiration for the ‘work’ they do. They don’t know what work is.

This is one of the most ignorant posts I have ever read. PoW had surgery in which cancer was discovered and removed. So she’s having adjuvant chemotherapy. Which is to mop up any undetected cancer cells which may have spread. Initial metastases can be tiny and often can’t be seen by scans but if untreated can still be fatal (in fact, even if treated can unfortunately be fatal). So the bottom line is that she has “full” cancer.

Although it’s sometimes referred to as “preventative chemo”, to downplay the seriousness of it, there’s really no such thing as preventative chemo. Even the RF wouldn’t be given chemo ‘just in case’, so no, us mere mortals in the same position wouldn’t be being told to watch and wait. 🙄

The PoW will still be terrified, as am I, that her children may be left motherless. But it’s fine, hey, as they’ll have nannies and money and shit so why is she worrying?

Totally agree with this post, I have already posted my thoughts and hope the OP has or will contact her MP as the experience described is beyond shocking.

However the language used around the 'battle' with cancer has to stop. There is no other life threatening illness where the patient battles their illness. Cancer isn't a battle you win or lose it is a lottery in terms of treatment, progress and outcome.

Cancer is shocking and hideous for anyone and the treatment grueling. However going through it on your own, racked with financial, logistical and practical difficulties cannot be compared to facing it with wealth, privilege, access to the best treatments, an army of staff and being able to concentrate your time, effort and thoughts on your family and yourself.

They work particularly hard at sucking up to the royal family, @Ilovecleaning— we should give them a nice round of applause for that.
Yet they never manage to get the forecast right: “Sunny skies tomorrow!”
Prepare for torrential downpours. lol

While I agree the fawning is over the top. I wouldn't trade places with her despite her wealth. She probably will still lie in bed at night and worry about the possibility of leaving her children motherless just like every cancer sufferer .
I also don't think many cancer sufferers have to dress up in glad rags and know the eyes of the entire world will be scrutinising every little bit of her and comment on her weight, her hair or lack of, her being gaunt etc. I did admire that she came out and put a brave face on for the world but she is no better or worse than any other ill person , doing their best to get through their treatment.

Wealthy people have a lot easier than mc people. Mc people have things a lot easier than those in poverty.

It is what it is.

It’s infuriating to read ‘ it is what it is ‘ No progress would ever have been made anywhere if people in the past had said that, we’d be still having only one day a year off and no nhs. The welfare state in a rich country should be able to keep seriously ill people comfortable and not have them frantically getting buses for treatment and worrying about loosing their wages