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.

The whole point of this thread is probably - we shouldn't have a monarchy because it's incredibly wrong, unfair and we are all suffering right now due to significant inequality which includes the perpetuation of a royal family.

If we didn't have a royal family that so many were sickeningly fawning over, then we wouldn't read these ridiculous articles in the Telegraph suggesting Kate does cancer better than us plebs.

I am enjoying your posts, although am sorry to hear about your health challenges@sixtyandsomething

What is that you are wanting Kate to do about it exactly?...do you want her to be more ill because she's rich and deserves to suffer? This is a ridiculous post.

Why do you think she doesn't have to worry about the kids uniforms and cooking dinners? She's still a parent.

But everyone in the UK is out of touch with how poor countries experience cancer. No diagnosis ever, no treatment, no pain relief, no social security. It's not a race to the bottom. But if it were, we would not be at the bottom by a long shot.

Being even super-rich doesn’t necessarily help the outcome. Look at Steve Jobs.
At least most of us, rich or poor, don’t have to suffer the endless speculation and nosiness of the media, tabloids in particular.

So so sorry that you have had to go through all this OP. It sounds utterly horrendous. As for the people swearing at you and kicking you for being too slow, shame on them . I hope karma bites them on the bum,big time.

I agree with you OP. I really feel for PoW as a mum with young kids. Privilege does not protect you from cancer. However, I think it is glaringly obvious that privilege does make things easier. You can concentrate 100% on recovery when you have no money worries, when you don't have to think about nutritious meals every night for your children, when you don't have to worry about making sure the children have enough outdoor time, off-screen time (because you live in a nice house with loads of gorgeous outdoor space), when you don't have to drag your butt outdoors to walk the dog, go on school run, shopping etc. None of this is to diminish what the PoW is going through but it is a disservice to "lessor mortals" to pretend their experiences are the same. I wish PoW the best just like I wish anyone with cancer the best.

So you want her to not be given the preventative treatment...you want her to get full cancer just to prove some silly point. What's the matter with you!

I'm so sorry you've experienced these things. Not rtft but have you contacted your MP about this stuff? The personal really is political in this case.

I cried with laughter at the OTT ingratiating comments. Any criticism of the tone of the article means you're a horrible hateful person. Utterly bonkers. I'm very sorry about your situation OP, the "lesser mortals" was a horribly inconsiderate comment.

OMG Camilla’s on MN!

This. As with everything, some have it easier than others. I have every sympathy for Kate, as I have for anyone going through this.

😂🤣🤣
Nope definitely not Camilla (thank fk)

She is still a young mum with kids feeling crap no doubt with the world watching on.

Sorry if you are facing cancer too but I don't think it is helpful to you to compare your experience to hers as you don't know what she is facing. Hope your recovery from this awful disease is straightforward.

A young mum having to tell her young children that she has to go through cancer treatment is shit, doesn't matter who you are

Much of the things you are going through (if you are talking about yourself) is also down to economic circumstances and you coping without support. I can't imagine letting a friend or relative of mine catch the bus after chemo.

Most people with cancer have the same confrontation with their own mortality

Agree

But only the very privileged have the peace of mind to know that everything that can be done is being done by the very best experts in their fields, with access to the best equipment and in a timely manner.

They don't need to sit at home, wondering if they can afford to put the heating on, knowing there is treatments available that could literally save their lives that they do not have access to while feeling like a lab rat dealing with a consultant who is telling them they have never dealt with their type of cancer before and it is really interesting. How do you deal with that bravely and with dignity then?

YABU.
I'm sorry you are having such a difficult time, but it is not a competition.
I had cancer when I had youngish children, and, where as it was no barrel of laughs, I didn't have the list of issues you put in your OP and I am not royal and am far from wealthy.
I hope things take a turn for the better for you soon, but being so bitter towards another human going through a challenging time does you no credit.

Of course no one wants that, everyone wishes her the best.

But she could stop with the "you are not alone" rhetoric. Instead she can start one about how she does find it hard and acknowledge her privilege, acknowledge it has made her think about how much tougher it must be without that privilege and what she, in her position of power and influence, intends to do about it.

I'm sure she is, but let's not forget that dignity is a luxury many cannot afford. Being denied it brings it's own distinct pain that makes the experiences incomparable.

I get you OP. It's what annoyed me when William & Katherine were talking about mental health and how the help is out there. Maybe for them and their children as they can go private, nobody is going to make them jump through fairly pointless hoops that seem designed to discourage people before a referral is even considered. If they had concerns about their children I'd guess they'd be able too see someone within a week rather than months or even years.

Not saying these situations would be easy for them, just that they wouldn't have the extra crap on top of a difficult situation.

Yes. Pearson wrote this, but she wrote it to appeal to Telegraph readers. Not just for her own entertainment. She wrote it for people who think Kate is an example to us all, people complaining about underfunding in the NHS, people who can't take 6 months off work and have their husband take 6 weeks off work too, that she is an example to all cancer sufferers to get on with it, because she rode in a car for 10 minutes then stood on a bacony. Why are people moaning about the NHS? They just need to get off their arses and be more like Kate. If things are underfunded, why can't those lazy arses on sickness benefit just stop lying and ' grow the economy? Journalists don't write in a vacuum, they write what they think their readership want to hear.

I think Charles is actually very good at this, and demonstrated empathy during his cancer diagnosis and during covid. I think he is an outlier in his family though. William and Kate love to pretend to be 'just like you' and it does them no favours at all.

I'm a cancer patient too and I really didn't see a problem with that quote.

It's simply saying she did something hard that others wouldn't have done. That's true, I wouldn't have gone out in public when I was feeling so unwell so Iv'e no problem giving her credit for that.

On the other hand I'd just given birth when I had to have stoma surgery and got my cancer diagnosis and people always want to tell me how amazing I am for handling it all and how they wouldn't have managed. I feel like that quote applies to me too just in a different way.

It sounds like you've had a hard time too and I bet you've done things that neither me or Catherine would have managed so in those ways that quote would apply to you too.

I don't think it's terrible to celebrate doing something difficult, the only difference is she's in the press and were not, To be honest I wouldn't want to be so yes I think she deserves some credit for that.

I’m sorry to hear about your health issues and the challenges you’ve faced but I’m not sure the purpose of this thread, other than to state the obvious.

Everyone’s experience of illness will be unique based on their circumstances and yes, someone like Kate, or someone well off, will not face the same challenges.

That said, most people won’t have to tolerate a load of fucknuts on the internet speculating about why you aren’t suddenly out and about as much, or have a load of conspiracy theorists saying you aren’t really ill, or that it’s all down to the vaccine, or have to make a video announcing it when it’s probably the last thing you want to do, or have the conspiracy theorists analysing the video for minor discrepancies to support their nonsense.