King Charles leaves running group in Sandringham 'shocked' with surprise visit
The king made the visit to "offer his congratulations"King Charles left a running group “shocked” and “aghast” in Sandringham this weekend as he made a surprise visit.
The king, 76, met with members of a monthly Parkrun event in Sandringham.
On the last Saturday morning of every month, an event takes place in west Norfolk which sees people walk, jog or run 5km.
On Saturday (January 25), the king met with participants of the Sandringham 5K Your Way, Move Against Cancer.
King Charles meets runners in Sandringham
The walkers and runners were meeting up for coffee and cake at the Sandringham Visitor Centre when King Charles made his surprise appearance.
Sophie Hansell, an ambassador for the Parkrun, said nobody was aware of the monarch’s appearance.
According to the BBC, Sophie said: “I was just in shock, I think I stood with my mouth in aghast for a minute.”
She explained that a member of staff at Sandringham had written a letter to the king to invite him to January’s event.
She added: “They just set up the restaurant, so it was quite informal, and he came in through the kitchen door.”
I was just in shock, I think I stood with my mouth in aghast for a minute.
Sophie explained that she and some other members of the group could relate to King Charles’ cancer battle, having had the disease themselves.
She added: “He was really engaging. I think a lot of the people who spoke to him said that he seemed to understand what it was like [cancer], and so he could really talk on the level of people’s treatment and their recovery. As much as you can empathise from an outsider’s perspective, it is completely different having gone through it [cancer] yourself.”
Parkrun’s Instagram page shared a snap of the king meeting some of the walkers and runners.
They wrote: “Not every day you get royal approval at parkrun. This morning, His Majesty The King joined Sandringham parkrunners in the café to offer his congratulations, including to the Sandringham 5k Your Way group as they marked their one-year anniversary.”
Latest on King Charles’ cancer
King Charles’ cancer diagnosis was announced by Buckingham Palace in February 2024. He has undergone treatment since, and continues with it this year.
It was a tough 2024 for the royal family, with Charles’ daughter-in-law Kate, Princess of Wales, also battling cancer. She shared her diagnosis publicly in March. She’s now in remission following the end of her treatment.
Read more: How Queen Camilla has supported King Charles through cancer ordeal
Recently, a former royal butler said that King Charles may have ‘learnt’ from Kate during their shared health ordeals.
Speaking on behalf of Spin Genie, Grant Harrold told Royal Insider: “Kate has managed to successfully fight this away from the public eye while also keeping everyone in the loop.
“The public never really got to see any of that before and it helps the public warm to them and see them as humans. Charles would’ve learnt from Kate.”
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