Queen feeling 'better' after week-long cold, says Princess Anne

Queen Elizabeth missed church services on Christmas day and New Year’s day, prompting concern for her health

Picture: (Steve Parsons/AFP/Getty Images)

The Princess Royal has said the Queen is feeling “better” after suffering from a “heavy cold” for a week.

Queen Elizabeth missed church services on the Christmas day and New Year’s day.

Princess Anne attended the service at Sandringham on New Year's day and when asked how the Queen was, she simply said “better”.

The Queen’s absence from the New Year’s day service was announced when Buckingham Palace said she “does not yet feel ready to attend church as she is still recuperating from a heavy cold”.

The Palace did however say she was “up and working” but “was not feeling 100 per cent".

Clare Gerada, former head of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said there was a nasty virus going round at the moment.

“We are seeing an awful lot of people this winter with a virus that is more severe than a normal cold, almost a type of bronchitis,” Ms Gerada told The Telegraph.

“It’s taking three to four weeks for people to completely recover, and the length of time the Queen has been ill would be in keeping with that.”

Queen Elizabeth, the world's longest-reigning living monarch, has announced she will step down as patron of a number of organisations and charities before her 91st birthday.