New book reveals the 'serious' disease Queen Elizabeth battled in days preceding her death

A new biography based on Britain’s deceased monarch Queen Elizabeth II sheds light on her final years, which comprised a serious battle with cancer, the New York Post reported. According to Gyles Brandreth’s upcoming book ‘Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait’, the Queen quietly suffered through bone marrow cancer, which exhibits symptoms like pain in the bones. 

Queen Elizabeth II, who spent more than 70 years on the throne, suffered from mobility issues in her final months, which fuelled speculations that she was battling an illness, even though her death certificate states that the cause of her death was “old age.” “I had heard that the Queen had a form of myeloma — bone marrow cancer — which would explain her tiredness and weight loss and those ‘mobility issues’ we were often told about during the last year or so of her life,” reads an excerpt from Brandreth’s book.

“The most common symptom of myeloma is bone pain, especially in the pelvis and lower back, and multiple myeloma is a disease that often affects the elderly,” the author wrote in the biography, which is being serialized by British tabloid The Daily Mail. “Currently, there is no known cure, but treatment — including medicines to help regulate the immune system and drugs that help prevent the weakening of the bones — can reduce the severity of its symptoms and extend the patient’s survival by months or two to three years,” the excerpt reads. 

What is the new book about? 

While there have been books and shows revolving around the Queen’s life, the new biography aims to encapsulate the time she lost her husband Prince Philip in 2021, as well as Prince Andrew’s scandal. The book also shares an anecdote, where the Queen spoke to a woman and reportedly shared that staying busy helps her cope with the grief of losing her husband of 73 years. “My husband would certainly not have approved,” the Queen said, according to the book, which claimed that she would often watch BBC police drama ‘Line of Duty’ to distract herself from her sorrows. 

She also wasted no time in ousting Prince Andrew after his infamous interview with BBC about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. “The Queen took a firm grip of things. To use the military jargon, there were only a few days between flash and bang. Action was called for it and she took it,” a senior courtier said, as mentioned in Brandreth’s biography.