Maryam Moshiri has disclosed that she has been living with an incurable form of blood cancer for nearly two years.
The 49-year-old, who anchors The World Today on the BBC News channel, received a diagnosis of polycythaemia vera (PV) in November 2024.
She has been a fixture at the corporation since joining in 2003 and is regarded as one of its most recognisable news anchors.
“It is going to be there till the day I die,” she told The Times.
Maryam Moshiri has revealed she has been living with an incurable form of blood cancer for nearly two years
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GETTY
“A big part of this disease is having to get on with life.”
Speaking to the BBC, Ms Moshiri said she felt the time was right to go public.
“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,” she said.
“I’m going to have to spend the rest of my life being treated for this.”
The BBC News presenter was diagnosed with polycythaemia vera in November 2024
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BBC
Polycythaemia vera is a rare cancer of the bone marrow that triggers an overproduction of red blood cells, causing the blood to become abnormally thick.
This thickening significantly raises the likelihood of dangerous blood clots, potentially leading to strokes, heart attacks or deep vein thrombosis.
Common signs of the condition include headaches, dizziness, blurred vision and confusion, yet Ms Moshiri said she was largely without symptoms when her cancer was detected.
“Mostly I had no symptoms, and that’s one of the problems with this disease,” she told the BBC.
The 49-year-old continued presenting for the BBC while undergoing gruelling treatment
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BBC
“The only reason mine was caught was that my GP was so fastidious in the way she did my routine blood tests and immediately sent them for further diagnosis.”
“I was told by my consultant that I have this incurable blood cancer,” she said.
Though PV cannot be cured, it can be effectively controlled with ongoing treatment.
Her initial treatment consisted of venesection, a procedure in which blood is slowly drawn from a vein in the arm to thin it down.
Over roughly five months, she endured seven or eight of these hour-long sessions, which left her iron levels severely depleted.
“So you can imagine my iron levels hit the floor and I felt even more exhausted,” she said.
Hair loss, intense itching and overwhelming fatigue followed.
Ms Moshiri then began interferon, an immunotherapy drug administered at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London.
The presenter has worked at the BBC since 2003 and currently anchors The World Today
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She described the side effects as “horrendous.”
“I was itching until I was bleeding through to my clothes, I have scars all over my stomach from the itching,” she told The Times, adding that insomnia and headaches compounded her misery.
After several months, she was moved onto a different medication with more tolerable side effects.
She has required only one venesection in approximately 15 months since.
The mother-of-three opened up about the impact her treatment had on her family life
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“I was working 14-hour days, constantly on air, constantly having to think on my feet, and holding it together, despite the fact that I had this chronic tiredness and fatigue,” she said.
“When you’re doing live news, you have this rush of adrenaline, and you just have to get on with it.”
The mother of three, Iris, 13, Vivienne, 11, and Caspian, 9, said there were times during her most gruelling treatment when she simply could not be present for her children.
“I’d be lying on the sofa, and my son would say, ‘Mummy, can you come play football with me in the garden?’ And you just can’t. You’re too tired.”
She credited her husband Jonathan Farmer, a journalist, along with BBC management and her children for their understanding and support.