My cancer could have been caught much earlier in Scotland – Alagiah

GEORGE Alagiah said yesterday that he believes his bowel cancer could have been picked up sooner if he lived in Scotland, where earlier screenings are offered. The BBC newsreader was first diagnosed in 2014 and underwent 17 rounds of chemotherapy and five operations on the cancer, which had spread to his liver and lymph nodes.

After getting the all- clear in 2015, the father-of-two was given the devastating news last December that it had returned. Hours later he went on to present the news that day as normal.

Alagiah, 62, who has been the face of the BBC’s News at Six since 2007, said that while he knows his cancer can no longer be cured, it could have been a different story had he lived in Scotland.

Men and women are offered bowel cancer screening every two years in Scotland from the age of 50. In England, bowel cancer screening often starts at 60, although in recent years one type of test has become available at 55 in some areas. The Sri Alagiah with wife Frances Lankan-born journalist said: ‘Had I been screened, I could have been picked up. Had they had screening at 50, like they do in Scotland… I would have been screened at least three times and possibly four by the time I was 58 and this would have been caught at the stage of a little polyp: snip, snip...

‘We know that if you catch bowel cancer early, survival rates are tremendous. I have thought: why have the Scots got it and we don’t?’

Alagiah has been told he has stage 4 bowel cancer, meaning his chance of surviving at least five years is 10 per cent. But the chance of surviving stage 1 bowel cancer for at least five years is almost 100 per cent.

He said the disappointment of the cancer coming back was ‘almost worse than the shock of finding out in the first place’.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: ‘The first time you are just stunned and shocked. But somehow, when you think you have made it well, I might still make it ... The disappointment was pretty bad.’

Alagiah was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April 2014 after noticing blood in his stools. He returned to the BBC in November 2015 after being cleared of the disease.

Alagiah has two adult children, Adam, 31, and Matt, 27, with his wife of 33 years, Frances.

He said: ‘I will not pretend it has been easy and we have had what we call our “wobbly moments’ and they hijack you at all sorts of times.

‘ Those wobbly or darker moments are all to do with, for me, visualising my family without my presence. It is not ego, it is just that we are a unit. We love each other and I could break up that unit not through any fault of my own, and that is tough.’

Alagiah, who recently finished a round of chemotherapy, said he is trying to remain as fit as possible through weights and an exercise bike so he is ready for surgery, if needed, which can take up to ten hours.