BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri disclosed on Wednesday that she has been living with blood cancer since her diagnosis in November 2024. Moshiri, who has worked at the BBC since 2003 and is one of the news channel's most recognizable anchors, said she wanted to publicize her condition to raise awareness about the disease.
Moshiri was diagnosed with polycythaemia vera, a rare blood cancer that is treatable but incurable. The condition causes the body to produce excessive red blood cells, thickening the blood and increasing the risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack and deep vein thrombosis. Moshiri said she had few initial symptoms and that her condition was discovered only because her general practitioner conducted thorough routine blood tests and ordered further diagnostic work.
As part of her initial treatment, Moshiri underwent multiple venesection procedures, in which blood is drawn from a vein to reduce blood thickness. She underwent seven or eight such sessions over five months, leaving her severely fatigued, with hair loss and itching. Later, she began receiving interferon, an immunotherapy treatment available through the National Health Service. Since starting that treatment, she has needed only one venesection in approximately 15 months.
Moshiri, 49 and a mother of three, said she has had to adjust to living with the condition, sometimes missing family events and activities with her children because of exhaustion. Despite the illness, she has continued to cover major news stories for the BBC over the past two years, reporting from Qatar during the US-Israel war with Iran, covering the selection of a new Pope from the Vatican, and traveling to Greenland for Vice-President JD Vance's visit. She said she feels "the best I have in two years" but acknowledged uncertainty about her health trajectory.
Helen Rowntree, chief executive of Blood Cancer UK, said the charity was grateful for Moshiri's openness about her diagnosis. Rowntree noted that blood cancer is the United Kingdom's fifth most common cancer and third biggest cancer killer, and that public figures speaking about the disease helps address the silence that often surrounds it. She called for increased public and government funding to develop treatments with fewer side effects.
