Award-winning BBC presenter George Alagiah OBE has died from cancer at the age of 67.
The father-of-two was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2014 and has since intermittently stepped back from his broadcasting work to receive treatment.
The news was confirmed in a statement from his agent on Monday afternoon.
“I am so terribly sorry to inform you that George Alagiah died peacefully today, surrounded by his family and loved ones,” Mary Greenham said in a statement.“George fought until the bitter end but sadly that battle ended earlier today.“George was deeply loved by everybody who knew him, whether it was a friend, a colleague or a member of the public. He simply was a wonderful human being.“My thoughts are with Fran, the boys and his wider family.”
The former BBC foreign correspondent, who was part of the BBC team that was awarded a Bafta in 2000 for its coverage of the Kosovo conflict, underwent chemotherapy to treat his advanced bowel cancer in 2014.
He returned to presenting in 2015 after making progress against the disease, and said he was a “richer person” for it.His cancer returned in December 2017 and he underwent further treatment before again returning to work.
In 2020, his bowel cancer had spread to his lungs.In October 2021, he stepped away from the newsroom to receive treatment and returned to his presenting role in April 2022.
He again stepped back from presenting in October 2022 after scans showed his cancer had spread further.At the time, Alagiah said: “A recent scan showed that my cancer has spread further so it’s back to some tough stuff.“I’m missing my colleagues. Working in the newsroom has been such an important part of keeping energised and motivated.”
When his BBC colleague Bill Turnbull died from prostate cancer last August, Alagiah congratulated Turnbull “for setting an example for all of us living with life-threatening illness”.
Born in Sri Lanka in 1955, he began his journalistic career in 1982 with South Magazine and joined the BBC seven years later in 1989.Alagiah joined the BBC’s Six O’Clock News studio team in January 2003 after earning a name as one of the BBC’s leading foreign correspondents.A specialist on Africa and the developing world, his reportage ranged from genocide in Rwanda to civil wars in Afghanistan, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Throughout his career he has interviewed many famous figures, such as Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.He won numerous awards for journalism throughout his four-decade career and in 2008 he was appointed as an OBE.
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