NHS nurse who met King at Marie Curie event wishes him full recovery

Michelle Beaver, a cardiology nurse who has worked in the NHS for 32 years, said the monarch ‘made everyone feel special’ when she met him in 2019.
Nurse Michelle Beaver reflected on meeting King Charles and wished him a ‘full recovery’ (Michelle Beaver/Marie Curie Hosp/PA)
PA Media
Hannah Cottrell7 February 2024

An NHS nurse who met King Charles at a Marie Curie hospice event said the openness the monarch has shown around his cancer diagnosis is “absolutely fantastic” as she wished him a “full recovery”.

Michelle Beaver, 51, a cardiology nurse at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, met the King twice in 2019: first in Liverpool at the 60th anniversary of the Marie Curie Hospice, of which Charles is a patron; and again at a garden party held at Buckingham Palace which Ms Beaver was invited to attend.

She said Charles was “really down to earth”, “lovely” and “made everyone feel special”, adding that the awareness he has raised around getting checked for signs of cancer has been “absolutely fantastic”.

“I thought it was really good because it got awareness out there and I believe men going to get their prostate checked went up massively which was absolutely fantastic,” Ms Beaver, who has worked within the NHS for 32 years, told the PA news agency.

“He’s had the tests and getting dealt with and hopefully he’ll make a full recovery.”

Mrs Beaver, who fundraises regularly for Marie Curie and said the cause is “close to her heart”, added: “The best thing is to keep a positive attitude and get out the other end.

“I think if you hide away in a ball and cry, it’s harder to beat, but a positive attitude in life gets you further.

“I’m saying that easily because I’ve never suffered through cancer, but I know family members who have and have passed away, so it’s quite close to my heart.”

Buckingham Palace announced on Monday that Charles had been diagnosed with a form of cancer and has postponed all public-facing duties, but is continuing with behind-the-scenes work on his red boxes of state papers.

The Prince of Wales has stepped into the role as the leading member of the royal family at official events across the country while his father receives treatment.

Chris Johnson, a father-of-three living with terminal cancer, told PA that he would guess Charles is “thinking more about his family than himself”.

The 44-year-old was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal stomal tumour in 2019 which was surgically removed but during a routine scan in the summer of 2020, it was discovered the disease had spread to his liver, making it “incurable”.

“What a lot of people I’ve spoken to, and what I feel, is that it actually ends up affecting the family more than it affects the patient, especially for grown adults,” Mr Johnson, from Sunderland, said.

“I would guess that he’s thinking more about his family and the people around him.

“The other cancer patients that I interact with all tend to say the same, we’re not too much worried about ourselves, we’re worried about the people around us.”

He added that Charles “always seems to be a strong-willed character” and he wished him “all the best”.

“Hopefully it has a positive effect; grown middle-aged men tend to be the least likely to go and get things get checked out,” he said.

“The King being open about his own diagnosis helps other to people go and get checked out and not ignore symptoms.

“It needs to be talked about as much as possible, so the fact that the King has come out and spoken about it as much as he has, has got to be helpful.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in