King Charles 75th birthday LIVE updates: Repair shop star Jay Blades leads well wishes as monarch prepares for day of royal engagements

Ascot Racecourse has given the His Majesty a special birthday gift - by renaming one of its races after him.

The venue hosts Royal Ascot every June, an event which is a keen favourite with the Royal Family.

The racecourse says the King's Stand Stakes, which is a sprint race run on the opening day of the extraveganza, will from now on be called the King Charles III Stakes.

The King has celebrated his birthday by launching a scheme to help people facing food poverty.

His Majesty has set up The Coronation Food Project, alongside Baroness Louise Casey, which aims to cut down on the millions of tonnes of surplus food thrown away while at the same time helping people who are struggling in the cost of living crisis.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Baroness Casey said while it woudn't solve all the problems, 'we can have a good go at trying to help some people' while also helping the environment by reducing food waste.

She added the organisation was taking a leaf from existing charities such as The Felix Project in London that take surplus from supermarkets and manufacturers and put it into food larders and banks.

'This will turbo charge that [idea],' Baroness Casey said.

'At the moment about 30 per cent of all food waste is actually at farms and also in manufacturing, so an awful lot of food waste is not in the supermarkets, it is further up the food chain.

'This is a very ambitious project. Today we're bringing together many manufacturers, many from farming as well as supermarkets... we are talking to them [about] how we can reduce that waste.'

The then Prince of Wales negotiating a 2 inch wide wire bridge during a trek in the foothills of Ben Nevis with the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team in 1987.

Charles trying his hand at breakdancing, to the delight of youngsters at a disco at Middleton-on-Sea, during a visit to a Youth Meets Industry course for 300 unemployed people, organised by the Prince's Trust in 1985.

Charles meeting the Spice Girls at the Royal Gala celebrating the Princes Trust 21st Anniversary in Manchester in 1997.

At the gathering in Highgrove on Monday, the King cut a specially made birthday cake to a rendition of 'Happy Birthday' on the piano.

Video of the moment, complete with 'mock-horror eye-roll', was taken by the Mail's Royal Editor Rebecca English, who revealed the King 'genuinely hates a fuss about these things'.

The King's 75th birthday will be a working day for the monarch, as he keeps busy on his big day. This is what Hi Majesty will be up to and how celebrations the will take place:

Jay Blades has passed his well wishes onto the King this morning, after being invited to His Majesty's birthday party last night.

The Repair Shop star has developed a keen friendship with Charles after the monarch appeared on a special royal episode of the TV show.

The furniture restorer and television presenter was pictured speaking with His Majesty at the King's Highgrove Garden home in Gloucestershire on Monday night.

This morning he took to social medai site X (formerly known as Twitter), where he revealed it was a 'Real Joy & Honour' to be invited and said that had 'such a laugh' catching up with each other.

Princess Elizabeth with her two year old son Prince Charles:

Prince Charles on his fourth birthday, as he leans from a window with his smiling young mother, Queen Elizabeth II

Princess Anne, 10, and Prince Charles, 11, sharing the task of pulling the pram of baby brother Prince Andrew for a walk in the grounds at Balmoral

Prince Charles with his father the Duke of Edinburgh (left) and Captain Iain Tennant, Chairman of the Gordonstoun Board of Governors, arriving at Gordonstoun for the Prince's first day at the public school in 1962

A commemorative £5 coin celebrating Charles's love of nature has been issued by the Royal Mint for the King's birthday.

The silver coin features the traditional imagery, with the headshot of His Majesty on one side, and the King's heraldic badge on the other.

The badge sits above the number 75, with all of this framed within a pattern of oak leaves and his favourite flowers, delphiniums.

The oak leaves symbolise the Monarch's strength, morale, resistance and knowledge, while delphiniums, his favourite garden flowers, reflect his love of nature.

The coin also includes an inscription which reads: Restoring Harmony With Nature'.

They were created by Royal Mint designer Dan Thorne, with the coins personally approved by the King himself.

At Dumfries House in Scotland, the home of the King's Foundation, a gathering of community figures to mark the King's birthday has been held.

Singer Leee John joined his 96-year-old mother Jessie Stephens, a leading figure in Britain's Caribbean community, at the Highgrove celebration.

She was one of the Windrush generation chosen to have their portrait painted and exhibited nationally to mark their contribution to British society.

John said at the time of the launch of the paintings, commissioned by Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, the King and Queen 'said out of all the portraits my mum's was the best'.

He added: 'I met him in the 80s when Imagination did a gig at the Royal Albert Hall, back then we did some work for the Prince's Trust and we were helping the youth in that time, 1985.

'So he was always very much about the community and very much about the environment.'

At noon, the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, named by Charles's grandfather King George VI, will fire a 41-gun salute from London's Green Park.

An hour later, the Honourable Artillery Company will fire a 62-gun salute at Tower Wharf, Tower of London - an extra 21 for the City of London.

Charles was bundled off to Hill House School in London before his eighth birthday to begin experiencing the world outside the palace.

The school prides itself on teaching children that they should learn to live with people of different nationalities, races and religions.

In another royal first, Charles earned a degree in history from the University of Cambridge.

He later spent six years in the Royal Navy before leaving to focus on his duties as heir to the throne.

After the seven-decade reign of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles has rushed to show that the monarchy remains relevant in modern British society.

He's made three overseas visits, pledged to open the royal archives to researchers investigating the crown's links to slavery and expressed 'sorrow and regret' for 'abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence' committed against Kenyans during their struggle for independence.

Charles's reign has gotten off to a steady start, but he still needs to set out a clear vision for the future, said Ed Owens, an historian and author of 'After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?'

'It's a difficult moment for the monarchy because it's going through this period of transition from being adulated as a default position to now being questioned and challenged in new ways,' Owens said.

'And I just wish that the king and his heir would set out more clearly what they want to do rather than take for granted what they think the British public want from the monarchy.'

You may think that there is a grand ceremonial reason behind Charles having two birthdays as King.

In fact, the explanation is far more straightforward but equally as British: it is do with the weather.

Because the Sovereign's birthday is officially celebrated by the ceremony of Trooping the Colour, known as the King's Birthday Parade, it is more practical to celebrate it in the summer months when sunnier weather is more likely.

While King Charles will officially celebrate his 75th birthday on 14 November later this year, he has already had a birthday party this year, when the Trooping the Colour took place on Saturday June 17.

Charles will also host a Buckingham Palace reception highlighting the work of nurses and midwives over the decades as part of the NHS 75 celebrations.

Among the guests will be around 400 nurses and midwives alongside the Chief Nursing Officer of England Dame Ruth May and Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England.

Birthday celebrations began early for the King when he was guest of honour at a party staged in the grounds of his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire yesterday.

Charles joined a host of people, from community stalwarts nominated by friends and family who were also turning 75 this year, to representatives from organisations marking the same milestone, from the NHS to members of the Windrush generation.

Among the famous faces at the event were celebrity chef Raymond Blanc, The Repair Shop host Jay Blades and singer Leee John from the 1980s group Imagination.

King Charles will officially launch the Coronation Food Project with the Queen which aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food need.

The royal couple will visit a surplus food distribution centre outside London and meet staff and volunteers to hear about the ways in which food waste can be used for social good.

The Sherborne Food Bank has already sent well-wishes to the King today and praised the food waste initiative.

Prince Harry is expected to call King Charles III as he turns 75 today.

But the Duke of Sussex and his family will not travel to London where his father is holding a small celebratory gathering at Clarence House this evening.

However, it appears there will be an olive branch from Montecito later today, with a phone this afternoon or evening due to the time difference in California.

Good morning and welcome to our live blog. The King will mark his 75th birthday today by busily highlighting causes close to his heart. Follow along for as we provide updates on all the royal festivities.