The newsreader was diagnosed back in 2014
Presenter George Alagiah has announced that he will be taking a break from BBC News as his cancer has spread.
Alagiah, 65, was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer back in 2014 and despite having made progress, it returned in 2017. Now, in a statement from his agent, he is set to “take a break from studio duties to deal with a further spread of cancer.”
George Alagiah takes break from TV after further spread of cancer https://t.co/iW0Hq5dIJl
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 18, 2021
The statement goes on to read that “his medical team had decided to hit the new tumour ‘hard and fast’. He is due to undergo a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy over the next few months.”
Alagiah himself commented that presenting the news “has kept me sane over the last few years” insisting that he is “determined to come back.”
Back in March of 2020, he spoke to a fellow BBC reporter about the struggles of living with cancer throughout the pandemic, revealing that he had contracted coronavirus.
"I think those of us living with cancer are stronger because we kind of know what it's like to go into something where the outcomes are uncertain"
BBC newsreader George Alagiah, who is being treated for cancer, reveals he's had a mild case of coronavirushttps://t.co/D0C8mkZJPL pic.twitter.com/jk5XpMKbNw
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 31, 2020
His experience of getting Covid while already having another serious illness also features in Natasha Kaplinsky’s new book, Letters From Lockdown.
Alagiah has been a presenter for the BBC News at Six 2007 and was previously the main anchor for the BBC World News’ GMT throughout the entirety of its nine-year run from 2010-2019.
We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the box soon.
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