My open letter to King Charles as he faces cancer

Following King Charles’ cancer diagnosis, Claire Gilbert writes an open letter about the lessons she learned while battling the illness, and the strength she drew from the teachings of the ancient mystic, Julian of Norwich

To His Majesty King Charles

Dear Sir

The immortal words of Julian of Norwich were stitched onto the anointing screen at your Coronation: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well”.

There is nothing trite in Julian’s teaching. She wrote in the 14th century amid war, persecution, oppression, revolt and, above all, the pestilence; the plague that destroyed communities across Europe. She herself suffered illness to the point of death as well as, in all likelihood, losing close family members to the plague. No stranger to pain and fear, then. So if Julian writes that all shall be well, she is giving expression to a realisation made only after suffering or, more accurately, by means of it.