King Charles, Kate Middleton share 'poignant' cancer link from past

King Charles and Kate Middleton share a surprising link in the cancer fight 100 years ago.

Michael Reed, an Australian historian, recently discovered that Charles and Kate, who have had treatment for cancer, both have family members who took part in the early campaigns to fund research to find a cure for cancer in the 1920s.

The King and the Princess of Wales's relatives were among the founders of the British Empire Cancer Campaign’s Yorkshire council in 1925.

Kate’s great-great-great-uncle, Sir Charles Lupton, was the first vice-president, while the great-uncle of Charles, who was the sixth Earl of Harewood, then Viscount Lascelles, was the first president of Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR).

It is pertinent to mention that Kate revealed in January that her cancer is now in remission, while Charles recently shared his plans to minimize his cancer treatment in 2026.

The YCR recently celebrated its 100th anniversary and also paid tribute to the royal family members.

Reed 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.”

The lecturer went on to share his "doubt" that Charles and Kate were aware that "the chief charitable interest of two of their [family members] was campaigning to find a cure for cancer."

“I think this new knowledge of both families having a historically strong connection to cancer research will add to both the King’s and princess’s determination to continue fighting the disease with the dignity that many throughout the world have been so impressed to see," he added.