Maryam MoshiriBBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri has revealed she is living with blood cancer.
Moshiri, who joined the BBC in 2003 and is one of the news channel’s best-known anchors, told the BBC she wanted to share her diagnosis to raise awareness about the disease.
“It’s been two years since my diagnosis and I’ve felt that I’ve started to understand the disease a lot better and the way it affects my life. I’ve got a handle on it to a degree now, so I felt it was really important to raise awareness,” the 49-year-old said.
“I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life being treated for this,” she added.
Moshiri was diagnosed in November 2024 with polycythaemia vera (PV) – a rare, treatable blood cancer. Although it cannot be cured, it can be managed effectively.
In PV, your body makes too many red blood cells, which makes the blood thicker than normal.
It leads to a higher risk of developing blood clots, which can cause a stroke, heart attack or deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Symptoms can include headaches, confusion, dizziness and blurred vision.
“I was told by my consultant that I have this incurable blood cancer,” she said.
“Mostly I had no symptoms and that’s one of the problems with this disease.
“The only reason mine was caught was because my GP was so fastidious in the way she did my routine blood tests and immediately sent them for further diagnosis.”
As part of her initial treatment, the BBC News chief presenter underwent several “debilitating” hour-long sessions of venesections.
Venesection is a procedure where a needle is put into a vein in the arm to slowly draw the blood out.
This blood letting can be an effective way to reduce the thickness of the blood.
“In about a space of five months, I had venesection seven or eight times. So you can imagine my iron levels hit the floor and I felt even more exhausted,” she said.
“After a while I started feeling extremely unwell and tired. I started losing my hair, I got itchy all over my body, but the main symptom was fatigue.”
Later, Moshiri was able to get on an immunotherapy treatment called interferon through the NHS, and after some tweaks, she says she is in a better place.
“I’ve only needed one venosection in about 15 months, so that’s been really good. The last couple of months have been better than the last two years,” she said.
“I think it’s really important people understand that this blood cancer is incurable but it’s manageable with the right treatment and you can lead a relatively healthy life.
“It’s just a question of finding the right treatment and making sure it works for you.”
She admits she is “not the person I was two years ago” but says she feels “much better”.
A battle against fatigue
In a few cases, PV can develop into another type of blood cancer called myelofibrosis, and even more rarely can develop into a type of leukaemia called acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), according to charity Blood Cancer UK which funds research into blood cancers.
Maryam MoshiriThe mother-of-three said she has had to adjust to life with her condition, sometimes not being able to attend family occasions or play with her children because she is exhausted.
“It’s the kind of fatigue that is not like I’m just tired and I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, you feel like someone has removed your battery completely, and however much sleep you get makes no difference,” she explains.
“Even though I feel the best I have in two years, I don’t know how I’m going to be in six months, one year, two years.
“People with PV have a higher chance of stroke, heart attack or DVT, so it’s something I always have be aware of and make sure I mitigate.”
Despite the fatigue, Moshiri has continued to travel across the world covering the biggest stories over the last two years for the BBC, anchoring from Qatar at the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, covering the selection of the new Pope from the Vatican and travelling to Greenland for Vice-President JD Vance’s visit.
She credits her “supportive and helpful” husband Jonathan, management at the BBC and her children Iris, 13, Vivienne, 11 and Caspian, 9.
“It took me a long time to be able to tell them about this illness, because I don’t want to worry them, but they have been so understanding. When I say things like ‘mummy is to tired to play with you’, they get it and they don’t push it,” she said.
Helen Rowntree, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, said: “We’re so grateful to Maryam for bravely sharing her story. When public figures speak openly about their diagnosis, it cuts through the silence that so often surrounds blood cancer – the UK’s fifth most common cancer and third biggest cancer killer.”
Rowntree said blood cancer can feel like a “silent” cancer as patients can present with vague, hard to spot symptoms, and highlighted that many with the disease manage their illness, treatment and side-effects alongside work and family life.
“We urgently need continued public and government support to fund the next generation of kinder, more effective treatments with fewer side-effects – so that more people with blood cancer can live well, spend less time dealing with the impact of treatment and be there for the moments that matter,” she added.
“There is a lot of research going into blood cancer and scientific advancement to look forward to. Hopefully they’ll be some sort of advancement that will help even more than these medications I’ve been given,” Moshiri added.
