BBC’s George: I’ve spent 18 months in pain from tumour in my back
BBC newsreader George Alagiah has been in ‘extreme pain’ from a tumour at the base of his back for much of the past 18 months, he revealed yesterday.
He also said he had had more than 100 rounds of chemotherapy since his cancer was discovered eight years ago.
In 2014, the presenter, 66, was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which returned at the end of 2017. Then in 2020 he revealed it had spread to his lungs.
He took a break from screens in October but returned in April.
He opened up about problems from the tumour by his spine in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, saying: ‘It is near my lowest vertebra.
‘I’ve spent a lot of the last 18 months in extreme pain. There have been times when even lying down makes it worse.’
The Sri Lankan-born journalist admitted he had been deprived of sleep, but said he did not want people to think we was feeling sorry for himself.
Speaking candidly about being confronted with his own mortality, he said he was ‘not too scared for myself’, but admitted: ‘One of the things I want to do is hold hands with my wife until the end, and am I going to be able to do that? It haunts me. Not every day.’ Mr Alagiah said a tumour was ‘very close’ to his spine, adding: ‘More importantly, it is sitting very close to the nerve and the aorta. That’s the one we are watching.’
He said chemo gave him mouth ulcers and made his fingernails fall off, adding: ‘I have discomfort all the way from my mouth to my bum. And that becomes acute after three days of chemo. Usually by a week later it is beginning to be better. Now, though, it is lasting longer.’