Anne Diamond: TV presenter reveals breast cancer diagnosis - BBC

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Anne Diamond attends the Health Lottery tea party at The Savoy Hotel on June 2, 2014 in London, England

By Paul Glynn

Entertainment reporter

Presenter Anne Diamond has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Diamond, 68, well known for hosting shows such as the original Good Morning Britain on TV-AM, said she received the diagnosis on the same day that she found out she was to be made an OBE.

The presenter, who currently works for GB News, explained she had undergone a double mastectomy in what she described as her "fight against breast cancer".

She said it had been "a long journey" and the reason for her recent absence.

"I haven't been on a world cruise, which is what I know social media has been saying... because I'm well known now for loving cruises," she said in an interview with her GB News colleague Dan Wootton.

'Back to work'

"It's been a fight against breast cancer. That's what it's been. It's been a long journey. And five months later, I'm still not at the end of the journey, but I'm through it enough to come back to work."

Diamond began her career in regional news before going on to become a star of daytime telly, in the 1980s and 1990s, for both the BBC and ITV.

The British journalist, broadcaster, and children's health campaigner hosted shows such as Good Morning with Anne and Nick, alongside Nick Owen, as well as TV Weekly.

Diamond alongside fellow broadcaster Nick Owen in 1987

A familiar face to viewers of shows like Loose Women, Channel 5's The Wright Stuff and its replacement Jeremy Vine, Diamond appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.

Diamond lives in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, also presented on BBC Radio Oxford and BBC Radio Berkshire.

She joined GB News last year to front its weekend breakfast show with Stephen Dixon, but the past six months have seen her step back from her duties on health grounds.

She explained she had received her cancer diagnosis on the same morning that she received an email saying she was to be made an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to public health and charity due to her campaigning on cot death.

After her son Sebastian died from sudden infant death syndrome [Sids] in 1991, Diamond joined forces with the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID), now the Lullaby Trust, and health authorities to launch the Back to Sleep campaign.

Recalling the day she heard about her OBE, she said: "It was a wonderful moment and that was like 9:30 in the morning.

"But I knew then, because I'd already seen my GP, that I had to go to a breast cancer screening thing later in the morning. I thought I would just go for a mammogram, and a couple of tests and I'd be free in an hour.

"I spent the entire morning at my local hospital where they did everything, biopsies, X-rays, CT scans, a couple of mammograms, everything, and by lunchtime I was still there.

"And a lovely lady came with a lanyard around her neck that said MacMillan Cancer Care and I knew then it was serious."

Graphic showing how to check your breasts for cancer

Diamond went on to say she was "still going through it", with reference to her cancer treatment, and that she had found radiotherapy "very hard". The first operation she had, she noted, was nine hours long.

But she said she was now "well enough" to return to work on her current show from this Saturday.

"So it's been a journey, but I'm not pretending for a minute that I am extraordinary, because I am fully aware that a quarter of women in this country are going through what I've just gone through and I don't have any advice to give," she said.

"I only have empathy."

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line.