BBC News Presenter Maryam Moshiri Reveals Blood Cancer Diagnosis

BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri has revealed she is living with blood cancer, disclosing her diagnosis in interviews with BBC News and The Times of London.

Moshiri, 49, said she was diagnosed in November 2024 with polycythaemia vera — a rare but treatable blood cancer in which the body produces too many red blood cells. The condition thickens the blood, raising the risk of clots that can lead to strokes, heart attacks, or deep vein thrombosis. It cannot be cured, but it can be treated, according to BBC News coverage of her disclosure (BBC News).

The symptoms can be disorienting. Polycythaemia vera can cause headaches, confusion, dizziness, and blurred vision — a formidable list for someone whose job is reading the news live on camera. Moshiri described undergoing "debilitating" rounds of venesection, a bloodletting treatment that reduces the volume of red blood cells. She said she had the procedure seven or eight times within roughly five months, and also received immunotherapy, according to Deadline.

Through all of it, she kept working. Moshiri said she continued to anchor BBC News over the past two years, including travelling overseas. She spent time in Qatar at the start of the U.S.–Israel war with Iran, filing reports from the region while managing a condition the audience knew nothing about.

Moshiri said she chose to speak publicly now because, after two years of living with the disease, she understands it well enough to help raise awareness. Polycythaemia vera is uncommon enough that many people have never heard the name, let alone its symptoms or treatments.

For the viewers who have watched her on screen throughout that period, the disclosure reframes what was already on camera. She was reading the news. She was also in treatment for cancer.