Queen Mother's Secret Cancer Battle

17 September 2009

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Britain's Queen Mother was treated for colon cancer.

An official biography claims that Elizabeth underwent surgery to have a tumour removed in December 1966 at London's King Edward VII hospital after contracting the potentially-fatal disease.

At the time, Clarence House said she had undergone abdominal surgery to relieve a partial obstruction.

According to author William Shawcross, the Queen Mother spent more than two weeks in hospital and then cancelled three months of official engagements after she was discharged.

But the rumours that the operation had included a colostomy persisted

The book also dismissed long-held rumours that Elizabeth was fitted with a colostomy bag following the operation.

Several years after the procedure, the queen's physician at the time, Sir Richard Bayliss, wrote to one of the queen mother's ladies in waiting, insisting the "lies" around her supposed-colostomy operation should be dismissed.

However, William added: "But the rumours that the operation had included a colostomy persisted.

"Many people who had to endure that operation themselves derived comfort from the belief that even someone with as active a life as Queen Elizabeth could manage so well after such a difficult procedure."

The Queen Mother beat the disease and passed away in her sleep aged 101 in 2002.

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