By Shelagh Fogarty

I was getting ready for work yesterday morning, listening to Nick Ferrari, as I usually do, when I found myself standing still.

A few of you were calling in, your voices breaking, as you talked about telling your children that you, or your partner, had cancer. It stopped me in my tracks.

Those conversations – the ones that change the shape of your family forever – are among the hardest any parent will ever have.

The Prince of Wales has been through it too. In an interview he gave in Rio, he spoke about how he and the Princess handled that impossible task: explaining, in an age-appropriate way, that both she and the King were facing cancer.

He didn’t dwell on details, and he didn’t need to. What came through was the care, the thought, and the protection they’ve tried to give their children.

When the Princess of Wales shared her diagnosis earlier this year, she mentioned that they had waited until the school holidays to talk to their children – that they wanted to understand what she was facing before they spoke to them. It was a very human moment. And it made perfect sense.

At the time, I pushed back hard against the chorus of commentators demanding she reveal every detail........

© LBC