King Charles’ first overseas trip of 2025 revealed after cancer treatment update

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that King Charles will be at a commemoration service at Auschwitz in Poland later this month on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp

King Charles’ first overseas trip of 2025 has been confirmed by Buckingham Palace as his his cancer treatment is “moving in the right direction”.

The Mirror exclusively revealed last month that the King would travel to Poland at the end of January to visit Auschwitz to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp. And now the palace has confirmed the monarch will attend a commemoration service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial on January 27.

It will be the King’s fifth visit to Poland and he will also meet Polish President Andrzej Duda while there. Holocaust Memorial Day, marked each year on January 27, has officially been a day of reflection, remembrance, and education since 2005.

As part of his dedication to bringing members of different faiths together as well as being a champion of community cohesion, the King will later today host three organisations dedicated to educating future generations about the at Buckingham Palace.

Speaking last month, a source said: “The King’s respect both for and from the Jewish community, as well as his work fostering community cohesion throughout his life, is well known and he will be welcomed to the commemorations. The King has worked for many years to promote tolerance and greater understanding between different faiths and communities, poignant subjects on such an anniversary.”

At the conclusion of the King and Queen’s successful tour to Australia and Samoa last October, palace aides suggested Charles is set on returning to a full schedule both at home and abroad despite continuing treatment for cancer. The King was diagnosed with the disease in February last year and had continued to fulfill his duties despite embarking on weekly treatment in London, which is set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Courtiers have said the King’s treatment “continues to move in the right direction” but changes to his schedule may be necessary if circumstances were to change. A source said: “The Australia and Samoa tour lifted his spirits, his mood and his recovery as did celebrations with his closest family over the Christmas period.”

Confirmation of the trip to Poland comes as the Mirror also exclusively revealed that the King is set to meet the Pope for an historic meeting when he travels to Italy in the late spring. Charles will hold a private audience with the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, during a blockbuster trip to Rome in the spring. The trip, alongside the Queen, will mark a major sign of intent for the monarch as Italy celebrates its Jubilee year.

Charles will become the first monarch in a decade to meet the Catholic leader and it will be the first time he is meeting the Pope as King. Often heralded for his unique ability to unite peoples of different faiths, Charles is understood to be keen to meet Francis, who at 88 has been in ill health and suffering from mobility problems in recent years.

The King is also set to visit The Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope’s official residence in Vatican City. The 15th century church is famed for its Renaissance frescoes by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masters, considered to be some of the greatest works of art in the world.

A royal source said: “It is very much the intention of both parties to have both a public and private audience with one another. There is huge respect for one another and in such an important year for Italy and period in the King’s reign, the gathering will be all the more momentous.”