Princess Kate Middleton and King Charles share family link in cancer fight
The link stretches back through generationsPrincess Kate Middleton and King Charles share a link through the fight against cancer, but it’s not to do with their own battles, and instead a family connection.
Both of the royals have undergone treatment for cancer after being diagnosed in early 2024. Kate revealed she had a form of the disease in March last year after undergoing planned abdominal surgery in the new year. Whereas the king revealed he had a type of cancer in February. It came weeks after undergoing an expected procedure for an enlarged prostate.
Typically, the royals haven’t divulged much into their health issues in the past. But both Charles and Kate Middleton opening up over their own cancer ordeals was a huge step for the royal family. It seems their link now stretches beyond their own experiences though.
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Princess Kate Middleton shares family link in cancer fight with King Charles
According to reports, Charles and Kate’s relatives campaigned together to try to find a cure for the disease 100 years ago.
A century to the year, both family members were founders of the British Empire Cancer Campaign’s Yorkshire council. At the time, in 1925, scientists had “little interest in finding a solution”. But Kate and Charles’ ancestors didn’t think so.
The Yorkshire Council – which later became the Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) – celebrated the royal connection for its 100th anniversary. The occasion was marked at Castle Howard and a release of a commemorative book.
Viscount Lascelles, Charles’ great-uncle and the sixth Earl of Harewood, was the first president of the YCR. While Kate’s great-great-great-uncle, Sir Charles Lupton, was the first vice-president.
Michael Reed, an Australian historian, discovered the connection between Princess Kate Middleton and King Charles’ cancer link when he researched their family trees.
He told The Telegraph: “I felt it was very poignant that although the princess and King Charles’s [family members] were both aristocratic men, they chose to get their hands dirty doing really tough campaigning for a disease which, in 1925, perplexed most leading scientists, who therefore had little interest in finding a solution.”
“I was moved to learn that [Lupton] had considered himself at age 70 too old to be Viscount Lascelles’s first vice-president, but still agreed to lead this charity because he felt so strongly that a cure for cancer was desperately needed.”
However, he thinks that Kate Middleton and the king were unlikely aware of the family link at the cancer charity.
Kate’s family history
King Charles’ ancestry, Viscount Lascelles, married Princess Mary, the sister of Edward VIII and George VI. After getting a name for himself in the military, he came into inheritance. He then spent his time championing causes around Yorkshire.
Princess Mary later became president of the council. She held the position until her death in 1965.
When it comes to Princess Kate Middleton, Sir Charles Lupton was the brother of her great-great grandfather Francis Lupton. The vice-president was a solicitor in Leeds. He held the title until he died in 1935.
He was described as an “outstanding man among men” in the charity’s centenary celebration. They said Lupton was “full of old-world courtesy and consideration, quiet, unassuming, sincere, with a direct simplicity which could not be resisted”.
100 years later and both Kate Middleton and King Charles are raising awareness for cancer, like their family members before them.
Charles was open about his cancer fight in a bid to help others detect cancer early. He is also the patron of both Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer support. Whereas Kate, alongside her husband the Prince of Wales, are joint patrons of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
Kate and Charles’ cancer fights so far
King Charles issued a message to followers in December that he has ‘good news’ amid his own battle with the condition. In a recorded video for Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign, he said that his treatment will be reduced.
He said that ‘effective intervention’ and an early diagnosis is part of the update. Charles explained: “This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care.”
The type of cancer he was diagnosed with has never been confirmed,. But Buckingham Palace did state it was not prostate cancer. Although it’s a huge update for the monarch, he hasn’t been described as being in remission.
Kate revealed in September 2024 that her cancer treatment had stopped, and that in January 2025 she was in remission.
Read more: Kate Middleton’s touching Christmas gift to hospital where she received cancer treatment
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