Charles is ‘doing very well’, Camilla tells well-wishers

The King is “doing very well”, Camilla has said, during a visit in Belfast.

The Queen was handed a get well card for her husband, who is undergoing treatment for cancer.

She is undertaking a number of engagements in Northern Ireland on Thursday after arriving at the region’s royal residence Hillsborough Castle on Wednesday night.

Camilla met First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly during an event at Hillsborough Castle.

The ministers took up office earlier this year following the resurrection of devolved government in Northern Ireland after a two-year political impasse.

During the event at the castle, Camilla marked World Poetry Day by watching spoken-word performances and met authors, actors and performers.

Hosted by poet Paul Muldoon, the Queen watched performances by Derry Girls actor Ian McElhinney, actress Frances Tomelty, and contemporary poet Michael Longley celebrating the poetry and literature of Northern Ireland.

Earlier, the Queen arrived to crowds of well-wishers on the bustling Lisburn Road in south Belfast.

She met owners and staff at Coffey’s Butchers, The Arcadia deli and Knotts Bakery before doing an impromptu meet and greet with well-wishers.

Camilla was presented with a gift of some local favourites at Coffey’s, including vegetable rolls and beer sausages, and responded saying: “I shall take these back for my husband, he will make the most of them”.

During her visit to The Arcadia, shop assistant Brenda Robb asked after Charles, and handed her a get well card for him, extending her best wishes.

Camilla accepted the card and thanked her, adding: “He’s doing very well …. he was very disappointed he couldn’t come”.

Responding to quips about men “not being the best patients”, Camilla said: “I try to keep him in order.”

Ms Robb told the PA news agency: “She was beautiful, a real lady. She accepted a get well card that I got for her husband and she said she was sorry her husband wasn’t here.

“It was a very appropriate card. It had a wee saying from Belfast, basically rest up, take care, and on the back of it, it said from Ireland. It was picked with love.

“People say maybe he’ll not get the card, but I think he will.”

Meanwhile, at Knotts, Camilla met owner William Corrie, as well as his wife, former Miss Northern Ireland and Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon, and their one-year-old son Fitz.

The Queen chuckled as a joke was made that the young boy, dressed in a tux, had stolen her thunder, and smiled down at him.

She left Knotts with a gift of their fruit loaf and iced madeira cake, adding she hoped to snack on it later.

Camilla also visited Ballykinler army base in Co Down on Thursday in her role as Colonel-in-Chief of The Rifles, and took the salute at a pass-off parade for junior non-commissioned officers.

The Queen arrived in Northern Ireland on Wednesday evening, with a bugler from the Hillsborough Ford Guard playing to mark her arrival at Hillsborough Castle in Co Down.

She was last in Northern Ireland in May 2023 when she and the King undertook engagements on their first visit to the region following the coronation.

She is travelling alone this week after Charles stepped back from his public duties while receiving treatment for cancer.