Good wishes sent to King Charles after cancer diagnosis

MEMBERS of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council have expressed warm wishes to King Charles III after his cancer diagnosis.

At the monthly meeting of the local authority, Sinn Féin councillor Stephen McCann said, “When someone receives bad news like King Charles of Britain has, it’s only right we send good wishes.

“It will be a great comfort to members of the Royal Family at how quick he has been diagnosed with this illness and, indeed, how quick his treatment has started.

“However, in this district and indeed across the North, the reality for cancer patients is much different. If you go to the GP with cancer-like symptoms and you are red-flagged for referral to hospital, you can expect to wait three weeks and that regularly is overshot.

“From getting a cancer diagnosis and treatment starting people can expect to wait 62 days. In the Western Trust area, recent figures showed that only 33.7 per-cent of people were seen inside that timeframe which obviously adds to the distress.”

Cllr McCann concluded, “We do send good wishes to King Charles of Britain but also my thoughts are with all those who are starting out on that cancer journey or going through it.”

DUP councillor Errol Thompson wished the King the ‘very best for a speedy and full recovery’.

He added, “I have taken onboard what Cllr McCann has said and he is right – there’s not a family in this chamber who hasn’t been affected by cancer in some form. My late father-in-law died a young man at 55 with it, so there are none of us escape it.”