An author has claimed The Queen 'was battling cancer' in the months before her death. Gyles Brandreth, who was a friend of Prince Philip, alleges the late Monarch was suffering from a rare form of bone marrow cancer in an upcoming biography called Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.
Brandreth alleged that the Queen eventually passed away from the incurable disease, despite Her Majesty's official cause of death being listed as "old age", the Mirror reports.
The former MP wrote: "I had heard that the Queen had a form of myeloma — bone marrow cancer — which would explain her tiredness and weight loss and those ‘mobility issues’ we were often told about during the last year or so of her life.
"The most common symptom of myeloma is bone pain, especially in the pelvis and lower back, and multiple myeloma is a disease that often affects the elderly. Currently, there is no known cure, but treatment — including medicines to help regulate the immune system and drugs that help prevent the weakening of the bones — can reduce the severity of its symptoms and extend the patient’s survival by months or two to three years."
The book, serialised on Mail+, also claims the Monarch suffered periods of low energy, despite telling aides she wanted to keep working after Philip's death in April last year. During these bouts of tiredness, Her Majesty would filled her time watching BBC drama Line of Duty, the biographer claimed.
"My husband would certainly not have approved," she is reported to have said.
It comes after reports one of the Queen's final wishes before her death has ben fulfilled by King Charles, as six new people are appointed to the UK's distinguished Order of Merit. Buckingham Palace stated that late Monarch chose the select six just days before she passed away in early September.
And in his first such duty as Sovereign of the order, King Charles has upheld his mother's decision.
TV presenter and author Baroness Floella Benjamin is among those chosen to the Order of Merit's latest members. The other five include a molecular biologist and a geneticist who received the Noble Prize, an award-winning architect, a former nurse who led sickle cell treatment and a celebrated historian.
The Order of Merit was created in 1902 by Edward VII to honour leaders in areas of arts, sciences, culture and military.
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