The King has described the ‘daunting’ and ‘frightening’ experience of being told you have cancer.

In what has been described as his most ‘poignant’ and ‘deeply personal’ words about the illness fifteen months after his own diagnosis, the monarch also revealed he had taken inspiration from the late Dame Deborah James.

She urged sufferers, he said, with moving magnificence to ‘find a life worth enjoying; take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope.’

His Majesty opened up in a message to fellow sufferers as they are invited to Buckingham Palace tonight to recognise the incredible work of community-based cancer organisations.

The King is himself still undergoing regular treatments as someone ‘living with cancer’, although aides say his recovery continues in a ‘very positive direction, as reflected with the very full national and international diary programme’ he is undertaking.

The personally-penned message has added significance given that his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, was also diagnosed with cancer within weeks of his own last year and underwent preventative chemotherapy.

In his message Charles, 76, takes pains to personally thank those who so ‘selflessly’ work giving care, comfort and reassurance to the 390,000 people who receive a new cancer diagnosis across the UK each year – more than 1,000 a day -as well as those working to treat the disease, research cures and fundraise for them do do so.

‘Each diagnosis, each new case, will be a daunting and at times frightening experience for those individuals and their loved ones,’ he writes.