King Charles made a candid comment about ageing earlier this week, as a Royal expert expressed concern about his noticeably swollen fingers, often referred to as "sausage fingers". During a visit to the Darjeeling Express restaurant in London with , was seen helping pack food donation boxes ahead of Ramadan.
The Royal couple met with staff and prominent British Muslim women, including judge Khatun Sapnara and Masterchef winner Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, before packing dates into paper bags for hospitals during the Muslim holy month. However, Royal features writer Jennifer Newton noted her surprise at Charles' ability to complete the task despite his finger shape, saying: "Seeing them sitting down, packing the dates up, using tweezers and putting them in the bags, it can't be very easy for Charles with his famous sausage fingers, because it looked quite fiddly." Charles's "sausage fingers" are reportedly due to a condition called Dactylitis, which causes severe swelling in the fingers and toes.
In response to a joke about taking up date-packing full-time, Charles humorously admitted to feeling the effects of ageing, saying: "I think I might be past my sell-by date".
The King's admission comes just over a year after the world was stunned by the announcement of his cancer diagnosis.
Remarkably, within a mere two months, the 76-year-old monarch resumed his Royal engagements. Since then, he has been seen at various events, including a poignant visit to a cancer treatment centre where both he and Camilla engaged with patients and staff. He was also in attendance at the Trooping the Colour ceremony last June.
Adding a personal touch to their public image, Jennifer recounted a charming incident during their visit to a renowned Indian restaurant: "There was also quite a nice moment where Camilla was putting the curry into boxes, and she was like 'where's my husband?' Because I think he was also meant to be doing it but he was off chatting to someone else, and she ran away and went and got him and she was giving him the box making sure he got to work."
