England football manager Gareth Southgate has passed on his ‘best wishes’ to Kate Middleton after the Princess of Wales announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
The 42-year-old royal underwent abdominal surgery at the London Clinic in January for what was initially thought to be a non-cancerous condition.
However, subsequent biopsy results showed that cancer was present and Kate has since been undergoing preventative chemotherapy.
The Palace have confirmed that the operation was successful, but Kate expected to remain in hospital for up to a fortnight.
‘It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful,’ she confirmed in a statement this evening.
‘In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful.
‘However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment.
‘This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family. As you can imagine, this has taken time.’
Speaking ahead of England’s Euro 2024 warm-up match with Brazil, England head coach Southgate sent his support to the Princess of Wales in a heartfelt statement.
‘Clearly we’ve just heard about the Princess of Wales and we just wanted to send our thoughts and best wishes to her and all of her family,’ Southgate said.
‘It was a remarkably dignified statement that she gave and we obviously have a very close relationship with the family.
‘So we’re very upset to hear the news but hopefully everything goes well.’
More to follow.
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