King Charles Quips ‘I’m Still Alive’ at Final Engagement Before Royal Family Christmas

King Charles cracked a joke about longevity during his final day out for work before the royal family convenes for Christmas.

On Dec. 20, the King, 76, and Queen Camilla attended a reception at Waltham Forest Town Hall to celebrate community cohesion in the borough of east London, where the sovereign quipped about endurance when someone asked how he was. Buckingham Palace announced in February that the King was diagnosed with cancer, and palace sources have confirmed that his treatment will continue into next year.

“Your Majesty, good morning, how are you?” Harvinder Rattan, a Sikh faith representative, asked King Charles at the reception on Dec. 20, as seen in a video shared by the Daily Mail.

“I’m still alive,” King Charles joked in reply with a smile, which made Rattan chuckle.

The King and Queen’s latest outing came on the same day that palace sources confirmed his cancer treatment will extend into next year, but is moving “in a very positive direction.”

Aides have signaled that that sovereign will continue to receive treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer towards his one-year anniversary as a “managed condition.”

“His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year,” palace sources said on Dec. 20. The King has had a full calendar in recent weeks, and future trips around the U.K. and abroad are penciled into his schedule.

The day after hosting a traditional pre-Christmas lunch for the extended royal family at Buckingham Palace on Dec. 19, King Charles and Queen Camilla went to the reception at Waltham Forest Town Hall. There, the royal couple met community volunteers, young people, emergency service personnel and faith representatives from the area recognized as a Borough of Sanctuary.

The event celebrated Waltham Forest’s strong sense of community following the borough’s peaceful anti-racism protest in August, organized as a response to the disorder that devastated the United Kingdom over the summer. 

The U.K. was wracked by unrest after three children were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class in the town of Southport on July 29. King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William and Kate Middleton all issued statements expressing their sadness and shock at the attack, and the King and Prince and Princess of Wales would all later visit the grieving community. 

Princess Kate, 42, also poignantly invited survivors and families affected by the tragedy to her Together at Christmas carol service at Westminster Abbey on Dec. 6.

Like her father-in-law the King, Princess Kate navigated a difficult year after announcing in March that she was receiving cancer treatment, and said in September that she completed chemotherapy. Breaking with past precedent, Prince William and Princess Kate didn’t go to the King’s lunch before Christmas at the palace on Dec. 19, which brought much of the family together.

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It emerged that the Prince and Princess of Wales were never expected to attend the holiday meal, and the couple are already in Norfolk with their kids Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, where they have a country home. 

The Wales family is set to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the King as usual, and William and Kate are looking forward to catching up with family then. The King and Queen’s Dec. 20 engagement is expected to be their last one before the upcoming holiday.

Step inside the royals’ holiday traditions with PEOPLE’s Special Edition: Christmas at the Palace: A Royal Family Album.