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BBC's Jeremy Bowen diagnosed with Bowel Cancer - urges other to get tested

Posted by Emilienne Rebel on

BBC's Jeremy Bowen diagnosed with Bowel Cancer - urges other to get tested

Veteran BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has said he has been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

The former BBC Breakfast host said he was undergoing chemotherapy after noticing "funny pains in my legs and in my back" whilst in Iraq last May.

Screening for bowel cancer in England is to start taking place aged 50, Public Health England said Last Year. April is bowel cancer awareness month and Bowen revealed his diagnosis to raise awareness of the disease.

Doctors initially believed the veteran journalist's pain was due to scarring from previous surgery, he told BBC Breakfast, the show which he presented alongside Sophie Raworth between 2000 and 2002.

"I had no symptoms - none of the classic bowel cancer symptoms. Nothing at all. But I thought I should get a test", he said.

He said he received a positive result and had a colonoscopy - a camera inserted into the colon to look for signs of cancer.

"It's not nearly as bad as it sounds - they give you lots of drugs," he said.

Surgeons found a tumour, which they removed, and he was currently having chemotherapy, he said.

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