Queen Elizabeth may have just squashed all the rumors that she’s not healthy enough to perform her royal duties.

This week, the monarch handed out the George Cross award to the National Health Service (NHS) for its work throughout the past seven decades.

She met with representatives from the NHS alongside her eldest son, Prince Charles.

Photos and videos from the recent engagement were released online and it shows the queen without her walking stick.

However, it cannot be denied that the queen lost a considerable amount of weight in recent months. But this doesn’t mean that her health is deteriorating to the point that she could no longer work.

Her Majesty has been passing on some of her royal duties to members of the royal family, particularly Prince Charles and Prince William.

She also tapped other royals to take on more roles and attend more outings after Prince Andrew, Prince Harry, and Meghan Markle quit their royal duties.

The queen has also been relying more and more on Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, Countess of Wessex.

However, all of these passed-on assignments are done because the queen is already having problems with her mobility. She’s also 96 years old, which means that she doesn’t have long to live.

But even if this is the case, the queen proved that her duty comes before anything else. And if the distance is not that huge, she can still walk, shake hands, and even make jokes.

According to reports, she teased the representatives from the NHS and told them that it’s good that they are still alive. After all, the nurses are on the first-line defense at the hospitals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, thousands of nurses across the world died after contracting the deadly virus. But things are starting to get better in the health industry in Britain.

Meanwhile, Rappler revealed that one of the nurses that received an award from the queen is from the Philippines. May Parsons was also the first to administer the approved vaccine outside of clinical trials.

The George Cross award that Parsons and the other NHS nurses received is a huge deal. After all, it is reportedly the highest award for non-military courage. “

“The George Cross is a really wonderful recognition of the bravery of our staff, of the courage that they’ve displayed throughout, and also their passion and compassion in everything that we do, and putting our patients first,” Parsons said.