King Charles reveals his New Year plans as people expect him to take a step back

King Charles has delivered one of his most personal and powerful messages yet, revealing he is “leading a full and active life” as he continues cancer treatment and urging the nation to take screening seriously.

The emotional address, broadcast Friday evening as part of Stand Up To Cancer 2025, saw the monarch speak candidly about his own diagnosis, the people who cared for him, and the staggering number of Britons missing out on potentially life-saving tests.

With Christmas lights twinkling across the country, the King opened his message by reminding viewers that while the festive season is a time of joy, it is also a moment to hold close the hundreds of thousands who receive a cancer diagnosis each year and the millions more who walk beside them.

“I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming,” he said, his voice steady but unmistakably heartfelt. 

“Yet I also know that early detection is the key… giving medical teams invaluable time and patients the precious gift of hope.”

Charles spoke movingly of what he calls the “community of care” surrounding every patient: the specialists, nurses, researchers, and volunteers who “work tirelessly to save and improve lives.” 

He credited them with helping him maintain the “full and active” routine he continues to keep, even while undergoing treatment.

The King didn’t mince his words when addressing discovery of his own cancer journey: "at least nine million people in the UK aren’t up to date with their screening." 

A figure he described as nine million missed chances for early detection and nine million opportunities to save lives.

When bowel cancer is caught at stage zero, nine in ten people survive for at least five years. When it’s detected late, that number plunges to just one in ten. 

Charles revealed that this warning isn’t new to him. "I have heard this message repeatedly during my visits to cancer centres across the country," he said, noting that clinicians and researchers tell him the same thing wherever he goes.

He delivered the uplifting news many hoped for, "Thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctors’ orders, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year.” 

It was a rare moment of royal candour, a King using his own journey not for sympathy, but as a national call-to-action.