George grateful for new chance
BBC newsreader George Alagiah has lifted the lid on his five-year battle with bowel cancer.
The 63-year-old presenter revealed that bouncing back from the stage four condition has given him a new lease of life.
After undergoing 17 rounds of chemotherapy and five operations – one of which removed most of his liver after the disease spread – he is now “grateful for every year, every day”.
He said: “I was very, very sick. It was stage four cancer. There is no stage five and I was in ‘sort-out-youraffairs’ territory.
“I’m absolutely grateful for every year, actually every day. It’s a shame it’s taken cancer to do it.”
Alagiah first battled the disease in 2014, eventually returning to TV. But the cancer came back in December 2017.
Though he looks fit, the TV star is still not out of the woods.
The broadcaster said he now feels in “limbo” as he waits for a scan to show how successful recent radiotherapy has been. But he knows there isn’t a cure.
Alagiah said: “I just wish the inside was as healthy as the outside.
“But we still believe it can be kept at bay.
“You have to take each day as it comes.”