Arabic version: مريم مشيري تكشف تشخيص إصابتها بسرطان الدم
According to BBC News, BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri has revealed that she is living with polycythaemia vera (PV), a rare and treatable blood cancer. The 49-year-old, who joined the BBC in 2003 and is one of the corporation’s best-known anchors, said she wanted to speak about her diagnosis to raise awareness of the disease.
Moshiri was diagnosed in November 2024. PV causes the body to make too many red blood cells, making blood thicker than normal and increasing the risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attack and deep vein thrombosis. Symptoms can include headaches, confusion, dizziness and blurred vision, although Moshiri said she had mostly experienced no symptoms before routine blood tests led to further diagnosis.
She said she had been told that the cancer is incurable and that she will need treatment for the rest of her life. Her initial treatment involved several hour-long venesection sessions, a procedure that removes blood through a vein to reduce its thickness. Moshiri said she underwent venesection seven or eight times over about five months, leaving her iron levels low and causing exhaustion.
She later received interferon immunotherapy through the NHS and said that, after adjustments to the treatment, she is in a better place. Moshiri said she had needed only one venesection in about 15 months and described the last couple of months as better than the previous two years. She said PV is manageable with the right treatment and that people can lead relatively healthy lives.
Moshiri said fatigue has sometimes prevented her from attending family occasions or playing with her children. Despite this, she has continued covering major stories for the BBC, including reporting from Qatar at the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, the Vatican during the selection of the new Pope, and Greenland for Vice-President JD Vance’s visit. Blood Cancer UK’s chief executive, Helen Rowntree, thanked Moshiri for sharing her story and highlighted the need for continued support for research into more effective treatments with fewer side-effects.
