My cancer could have been cured if I lived in Scotland, says BBC’S Alagiah

♦ George Alagiah, the BBC television newsreader, has said that his cancer could have been discovered sooner if NHS screening began in England as early as it does in Scotland.

The 62-year-old presenter of News at Six was told that his stage-four bowel cancer had returned just before Christmas. He was first diagnosed with the disease in 2014, and it later spread to his liver and lymph nodes. However, he returned to work a year later after chemotherapy and three operations.

There is less than a 10 per cent chance of survival for at least five years for those with stage-four bowel cancer.

Alagiah is aware that it is too late to be cured, but says it could have been prevented. If he had lived in Scotland, he would have already been screened three times for the disease by the time of his first diagnosis in 2014, aged 58.

While men and women are offered bowel cancer screening every two years from the age of 50 in Scotland, in England bowel cancer screening only begins at 60.

There is a near 100 per cent chance of surviving stage-one bowel cancer for at least five years. “Had they [NHS England] 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...” he told The Sunday Times.