Brave till the end THE QUEEN'S SECRET BATTLE

Our beloved Monarch accepted her fate and carried on regardless

- Judy Kean

She was stoic and steadfast right until the end. But now a source close to the royal family says in the last months of her life, the Queen was secretly battling a particularly painful form of cancer.

Author Gyles Brandreth, who was a good friend of Prince Philip, claims in a new biography that the Queen had myeloma, a form of bone-marrow cancer. He says the disease would explain her tiredness and weight loss, and those "mobility issues" the palace said she was suffering from in the last year or so of her life.

"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."

Her cause of death was officially given as "old age", but that's common in patients over 80 who have suffered a gradual decline, says Gyles, a former broadcaster and MP who was a confidante of Philip for many years, and is also friends with the King.

Dr Douglas Glass, who looked after the Queen for more than 30 years and was with her when she died, said her death "was expected and we were quite aware of what was going to happen," according to Gyles' book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait.

The Queen began experiencing a sudden "energy low" and feelings of exhaustion in the second half of 2021. Doctors ordered her to rest and not push herself, which led to several cancelled appointments. She reluctantly followed the advice, saying, "I've got to be sensible."