Maryam Moshiri: BBC News presenter reveals she has blood cancer

BBC 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 vain 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”.