Princess Kate should share secret of her 'fabulous' hair for cancer survivors 'when she is ready'

I think that is a tiny kind of thing that might possibly be shared because a lot of women will be looking at that fabulous long man of hers and thinking you know I I have to go into chemo soon the doctor's pretty certain I'll be dead balled like I was you know I mean that's actually interesting I mean not not even as criticism but as media advice you know I think people would people would love to hear that I think people when she's when she's ready you know because she hasn't we don't even know which cancer it was so far but I just think that for nearly all women who have to go into chemotherapy one of the huge dreads is hair and especially if they've had it down to their waist and beautiful like like hers and they just want to know how how was this done this is wonderful delighted for her but you know just just give us a clue that's U the Princess of Wales is of course um she is she is cancer-free she has put out uh what has been described as an intimate video of course it's the opposite of intimate it's glossy it's emotional it's produced like a music video or the Montage at the end of Lord of the Rings perhaps when Frodo goes home and yet it's extremely moving because it has to be because this is a woman who has come through uh what what can be a horrendous battle for many people and the country is deeply invested uh as indeed we should be Libby what did you think about this uh I I am I'm very soy uh that way because it's a young family it's a real young family who's been through a real thing and I thought it was touching I thought it was very as you say glossily produced with those little sort of dropin bits which looked like old royal royal family films and so on um so I was I was in sympathy and I am very pleased that she's saying it look I am standing with you everyone else who's going through this stuff however having been through this stuff myself for 5 months having been through chemotherapy a couple of years ago um one of the things a lot of women will be wondering and I'm going to say it because times radio has no fear of anybody's views uh that for a lot of women hair is a very very big thing right and basically you lose it I was bold as a coot mine has been because I'm older than her very very slow to grow back very very thin all the rest of it a lot of women really but her hair is fantastic and is the old fabulous um Katherine hair which I think a lot of people will actually want her one day to say what was the treatment did she have one of these things called a cold cap which can work for some people what happened I think that is a tiny kind of thing that might possibly be shared because a lot of women will be looking at that fabulous long man of hers and thinking you know I I have to go into chemo soon the doctor's pretty certain I'll be dead balled like I was you know I mean that's actually interesting I mean not not even as criticism but as media advice you know I think people would people would love to hear that I think people when she's when she's ready you know because she hasn't we don't even know which cancer it was so far but I just think that for nearly all women who have to go into chemotherapy one of the huge dreads is hair and especially if they've had it down to their waist and beautiful like like hers and they just want to know how how was this done this is wonderful delighted for her but you know just just give us a clue that's really interesting James what did you what did you think of the video I mean because I I always think with royalty there's a sort of how to put this there's a sort of paradox there in what they have to do because you don't you don't get posher than royalty and this and this this woman she's a she's a history of art graduate and that yet there she is having to do something that appeals like literally is designed to appeal to as many people as possible on a kind of sort of sentimental level what did you think of the video as a video yeah I think it's fascinating it really feels like another kind of era in Royal Communications has started there's never been a video quite like this even the video when she announced her cancer last year was much less slick much less produc and this is sort of it feels like they've learned very rapidly from the Megan marle Communications Playbook you know glossiness slickness let's hear a bit of that video this time has above all reminded William and me to reflect and be grateful for the simple yet important things in life which so many of us often take for granted of Simply loving and being [Music] loved doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus although I have finished chemotherapy my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes yeah that is the prin princess of whales releasing her video announcing the end that she's completed her cancer treatment which is on it's basically being discussed on the front pages of every newspaper today uh let's move on talk about another story in the times today uh the times reports that thousands go straight from from University to long-term sickness thousands of people never Begin work they go straight to long-term sickness but this isn't a story just about students it's also about worklessness there are now a record 2.8 million people off sick and as the paper says in Britain One in Every 15 people of working age is now off owing to a long-term illness a rate 69% higher than Germany and more than twice Italy's level um let I'm trying to think which which way around to talk about this there's a phrase there's a phrase sociologists use uh when they're talking particularly about depressed areas which I think I can get away with saying only once on radio if I apologize for it in advance and that is life syndrome you know it's it's a phrase used when they're talking about deprived communities how people live I wonder if something's happened in Britain where an awful lot of people are in this situation uh yes I think so and also quite a lot of them are on NHS waiting lists for some form of treatment uh me mental or physical you know they they just are you know and that that is not helping and it was never going to help into the years of neglect of the NHS uh you know have affected that but I think I am really to be honest if I may focus it down on the British students thing course students straight from University yeah into long-term sickness a great deal of it being mental that really bothers me because it seems to me there are three things here one is pastoral neglect because they go to university you're 18 you're technically an adult when I was at University it was just after the age changed and up to 21 you know you weren't technically an adult and believe me me the the staff you know the the Dons were were far more aware of what's going on in that person's life you know why is she not at the lectures you know what's happening what's going on so I think there is now a sense that oh they're young adults and so it doesn't count but actually a lot of them never been away from home before uh and that's a huge thing and then of course there's the over zooming there's the fact that too much teaching has gone totally online and stayed that way since covid and that is very it's disorienting I mean I'm sitting here with you two today and it's really lovely you know if if we on Zoom like I quite often are not the same coming out of CO as well I mean and then there's the other third thing there overe expectation with students I think the the idea that you have to have a graduate job is sort of nonsense you know because there are so many graduates now since Tony Blair sort of upped up the numbers and it stayed up and I think there are probably too many and some would be happier at apprenticeships learning to do something physical with their hands or you know a vocational training and instead you come out you think I need a graduate job and you look at all the cases that people keep quoting and you know this is something look go work in your local cafe there's a huge shortage of hospitality workers go see some people you know write a mischievous little blog about it or something but get on and go out and instead I think there's a certain kind of oh I I'm a graduate I've got all this debt this enormous debt which I can't pay because now one will no one will give me a graduate job so I think we have a huge problem with University and the end of University as well as the major worklessness thing I mean certainly I'd say that when I graduate gradua from University the period after that was probably the hardest time in my life I didn't didn't know what to do with my life and it's a very and people you can see you know it's it's it can be a very depressing and difficult time and I'm sure much more so James I mean I was lucky enough to leave University at least in a time when if I did get a job if I did go on and have a career then I was going to be able to afford a house and have what looked like a normal life and I wonder if people are so disheartened by what seem to be the prospects for young professionals these days that they still think what's the point yeah I mean it's an incredibly daunting thing to confront and you're quite right about that being the one of the toughest times in life I remember once having an interesting conversation with someone who was a researcher into loneliness and they were saying that when these surveys pick up you know loneliness and proportions of loneliness in the population an always an important part of that is people who are about 21 22 who've just left University and that is always I think the the loneliest most sort of disconnected portion of population that has uniquely as you say uniquely difficult and lonely time in life with those daunting expectations with also I think a lot of people going to University and maybe being a bit less just because we know that modern teenagers are a bit less independent they spend more time at home they socialize less just a little less prepared for life and kind of maybe slightly the back foot in that way in in a way that previous generations of students weren't plus the huge expectations plus you can see why it's a problem you can see why that you know just overwhelms a lot of people and I wonder if part of the answer has to be universities accepting that you know they're getting cohorts of students who are a bit less prepared to stand on their own two Fe Fe and they need to intervene and you know prepare people for that difficult Post University period a bit better I still struggle with um I mean I struggle in a way while knowing I'm wrong with the idea that universities should have any pastoral role at all because I think these are adults University but of course they should and in the same way that these days employers should as well but I think I i' I find looking in myself I'm quite shocked by my own conservativism in that regard look back look back into the IR of that non-conservative lady Jermaine GRE she spoke quite brilliantly about the the posos of these 18 19 year olds that that she dealt with one of them had attacked her or something you know she said look actually these are kids you know why are we treating them as if they're fully grown up they've been raised as kids they are kids um and so I think that that kind of encouragement is necessary and useful and of course the other thing is that going into work any job you know lowly job I worked in Endless cafes and bars and so on you get company there's other people around you you do have a laugh with your colleagues you have function and meaning even if laughing at them you know you've got people it's not just having meaning you might be doing a meaningless job in a meaningless Cafe but on the other hand there's people around you you know and that that's it's saved people for centuries that that comradeship in in a workplace and I hate the idea of these kids sitting at home anxious with a screen