George Alagiah has accepted that he's not going to "get rid of" his cancer.
George Alagiah on his chances of beating cancer
The 66-year-old BBC newsreader was diagnosed with bowel cancer in April 2014 and again in December 2017, and while he returned to the studio in August last year, George stepped back in October after a new tumour was found.
In a new interview, the broadcaster has admitted that while he is hopeful he will still be alive "for a long time" because it's "growing very slowly", he believes cancer will "probably get me in the end".
Speaking on former Downing Street director of communications Craig Oliver's 'Desperately Seeking Wisdom' podcast, he admitted: “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get rid of this thing. I’ve got the cancer still. It’s growing very slowly.
“My doctor’s very good at every now and again hitting me with a big red bus full of drugs, because the whole point about cancer is it bloody finds a way through and it gets you in the end.
“Probably … it will get me in the end. I’m hoping it’s a long time from now, but I’m very lucky.”
George is proud of his life and gushed about the "great fortune" of meeting his wife of 37 years, Frances Robathan - with whom he has two children, Adam and Matthew.
He added: “I had to stop and say, ‘Hang on a minute. If the full-stop came now, would my life have been a failure?’
“And actually, when I look back and I looked at my journey … the family I had, the opportunities my family had, the great good fortune to bump into [Frances Robathan], who’s now been my wife and lover for all these years, the kids that we brought up … it didn’t feel like a failure.”
In June 2020, George revealed his cancer had spread to his lungs.
He explained: "I’ve always said to my oncologist, ‘Tell me when I need to sort my affairs out’, and he’s not told me that, but what he did tell me is that the cancer is now in a third organ. It is in my lungs.
"I said to my doctor, ‘You’re going to have to do the worrying for me.’ I don’t want to fill my mind with worry. I just know that he’s a clever guy, doing everything he can."
In March 2020, the journalist was diagnosed with coronavirus.
Meanwhile, George's agent had insisted he's determined to return to presenting 'BBC News at Six'.