Visits to a UK cancer support charity’s website have surged in the days after Britain's Princess Kate revealed her cancer diagnosis.
Macmillan Cancer Support said traffic to its online information and support pages were the highest seen on a weekend since the first Covid-19 lockdown.
Between Friday evening – when Kate’s video message was released – and Sunday, there was close to 100,000 visits, 10 per cent higher than this time last year.
The surge follows a similar spike last month when Britain's King Charles announced he had been diagnosed with cancer.
The same pages were visited almost 50,000 times in a single day, Macmillan said.
The charity praised Kate for raising awareness of the worries patients may have in the wake of diagnosis and hopes it will encourage more people with the disease to reach out.
According to Macmillan, more than 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day, the equivalent to one person every 90 seconds.
Chief executive Gemma Peters said: “We hear from people every day who are worried about how cancer will affect their loved ones and how best to support each other through it.
“In sharing her news, the Princess of Wales has raised awareness of these worries and will be helping to encourage others who have concerns, to visit their GP and seek support.
“Many will be relating to the Prince and Princess of Wales at this time.
“Some of the first thoughts parents have after being diagnosed with cancer are how it may affect their children and whether talking to them about it will make them worry, but it is important to give them the chance to talk openly about their fears.”
The figures from Macmillan come after Cancer Research UK spoke of a similar “uplift” in traffic.
The charity’s executive director of policy Dr Ian Walker told the PA news agency: “We see significant increase in uplift in terms of the number of people that visit our website for health information after these types of announcements.”
He added that “high-profile cancer cases” like the King and Princess of Wales “can act as a prompt to encourage people to find out more”.
“I think for anyone – being open and talking about cancer diagnosis can have a positive effect. It encourages people to find out more and to think about their own health.”
