Let King Charles’s illness finally change how we speak about cancer: it’s not about ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ a ‘war’ | Simon Jenkins

As someone treated for bowel cancer, I think attitudes must change but also the language. Some of it is tactless, some ridiculous

King Charles has cancer. Coverage of this story in the days since the announcement has been funereal. Daily bulletins are issued. Heads of state send condolences. Pictures portray the monarch ashen-faced. The global media pitch camp outside Buckingham Palace, and wait.

Will the cancer taboo never vanish? Half of Britons who have had cancer" do something called survive, and live with it". The current 10-year survival rates of skin, prostate, breast and testicular cancer are now running at 75-98%. Rates for pancreatic, brain and lung cancers remain lower, and mortality is obviously much higher for older people. But like most illnesses, if diagnosed early most cancers are now removable and/or curable. They are no longer as they once were: a death sentence.