King Charles will travel with surprising items on overseas tour – including blood

The Royal Family hardly ever pack lightly when heading on official tours – and it seems King Charles will be no different.

Both he and Queen Camilla will be starting the long journey to Australia today as they embark on a nine-day tour taking in Sydney and Canberra as well as Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm). The trip will be a landmark one for Charles as it marks his first visit to Australia, where he is also head of state, since becoming King and his first Chogm since becoming head of the Commonwealth. Not only that but the trip also represents his first major overseas visit since being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year.

Since Charles, 75, was diagnosed with cancer in February, he has been having weekly treatment. However, it is understood that while this will continue until he is due to travel, the treatment will stop briefly for 11 days while he is out of the country but will then resume when he returns.

But it seems his health is still of the utmost importance during his travels, with the tour already being cut short and not including a trip to New Zealand after doctors ruled it would be too much. And according to The Times, the King will take two doctors with him for the duration of the trip and he will be “monitored closely during the visit”. However, the head of the royal medical household, Michael Dixon, is not thought to be one of these doctors.

Meanwhile, as is standard practice when the monarch travels, Charles will also reportedly be taking a supply of his own blood to make sure there is an exact match in case a blood transfusion is necessary.

The late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told Hello!: “You’ve got to make sure that you’re covering every eventuality and the aircraft would carry blood in case there was a blood transfusion. There’s never any guarantee you are going to get the right type of blood at your destination.”

Another necessity royals pack when heading abroad to cover all eventualities is a black outfit – and it’s for a morbid reason – in the unfortunate event that someone passes away when they’re abroad.

Members of the Royal Family are all expected to wear black when mourning as a mark of respect. The most recent example of this rule coming into effect was back in 1992 when Princess Diana’s father, Lord Spencer, passed away. At the time, she was away on a skiing holiday with the then-Prince Charles. They quickly returned to the UK, and were photographed both dressed in all-black attire.

Famously, the late Queen Elizabeth II was in Kenya on a safari with Prince Philip when her own father, King George VI, died in 1952. The then-Princess, just 25 at the time, was without a mourning dress and as a result, she wasn’t allowed to be photographed until a suitable outfit had been brought to her.

Meanwhile, in order to have a taste of back home while he is away, Charles is said to take a “breakfast box” while travelling that includes six different varieties of honey.

Speaking before Queen Elizabeth II’s death, royal chef Graham Newbould revealed: “Prince Charles has a healthier option. He’d have homemade bread, a bowl of fresh fruit, fresh fruit juices. Wherever the Prince goes in the world, the breakfast box goes with him. He has six different types of honey, some special mueslis, his dried fruit and anything that’s a bit special that he is a bit fussy about.”

So while it seems the King’s travel list is extensive, there is one thing he doesn’t have to worry about packing – and that’s his passport. According to the royal family’s website , which has yet to be updated in full following the death of the late Queen, the monarch does not need a passport for a simple reason – the documents are issued in their name.

“When travelling overseas, The Queen does not require a British passport,” it explains. “As a British passport is issued in the name of Her Majesty, it is unnecessary for The Queen to possess one. All other members of the Royal Family, including The Duke of Edinburgh [then Prince Philip ] and The Prince of Wales [then Prince Charles], have passports.”

New navy blue UK passports are stamped with the Royal Arms, but following the late Queen’s death, language on the first page has been tweaked from ‘Her Majesty’ to ‘His Majesty’. It states: “His Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of His Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.”

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