BBC newsreader Maryam Moshiri has provided a health update after revealing she has been diagnosed with the incurable cancer Polycythaemia vera following a blood test
Maryam Moshiri appeared on Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV)
Maryam Moshiri admits it can feel like someone has “taken her battery out,” in a new interview following her incurable cancer diagnosis. The newsreader confirmed she will not let her condition get her down and said she’s determined to “get on with it”.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the BBC star, 49, opened up about recently being diagnosed with the rare condition Polycythaemia vera. But rather than dwell, Maryam was very positive in her outlook and vowed to continue with her life and career.
She told presenters Ed Balls and Susanna Reid: “I was doing BBC Breakfast in the morning and the 10 o’clock news in the evening. I think as journalists, we work hard, we do shifts, we wake up early, we do nights, and I think there’s that sense that’s been instilled in me over the last 25 years as a broadcaster to just get on with it.
“And I just felt to myself, this is my job, I love it. I’ve wanted to do broadcast news since I was a child. It was my dream job to be a TV news presenter. I now have that job, so I’m not going to say if someone calls me and says, “We want to send you to Doha tomorrow, can you do it?” And I’m not going to say no, I’m going to say yes and I’m going to work it out when I get there. And that’s how I kind of lived.”
She went on: “In my mind [the diagnosis] could change your perspective in two totally different ways. On the one hand, it could make you cautious, risk-averse, careful, saying no and planning for the long term. Or it could make you think, you know, get on with it, do it, have a go, why wouldn’t I? Because you never know which is going to be.”
Describing how she takes it be the day, Maryam admitted some days she feels “really not well”. She said: “You feel really not very well, very tired, like someone’s taken your battery out. And at that point, I think you hunker down, and you just think to yourself, ‘This day will be over soon, and I’ll feel better again.’
“Because it’s very much a disease where you’ll have good times, bad times, periods where you’re feeling well and periods where you are extremely unwell. And I think everyone’s journey is different.”
As she attempts to raise awareness of her rare condition alongside Blood Cancer UK, Maryam revealed the “horrible” symptoms she had ben having. She told the show: “I had headaches, I had itching so bad that I was bleeding into my clothes, bleeding through to my clothes at work.”
But in a positive message to others that could be struggling, she insisted: “But you can get through it. You know, you can carry on with your life. And there is hope for people.”
The newsreader is one of 15,000 people in the UK living with Polycythaemia vera, a disorder where your body produces too many red blood cells. The presenter was diagnosed after a menopause blood test. She has been undergoing immunotherapy since her diagnosis two years ago.
Doctors say Maryam’s disorder is a chronic condition that can be managed, rather than being a rapidly deteriorating illness. Appearing on the GMB settee with Maryam, Dr Sara Kayat said it is important to “differentiate incurable with untreatable or palliative or terminal”.
Speaking of Maryam’s condition, she said: “This can, although chronic, can be treated in the sense of managing your risk and managing your symptoms.”
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.
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