George Alagiah's cancer has spread to his lungs.

George Alagiah

George Alagiah

The 64-year-old newsreader was first diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014, and the disease has now spread further throughout his body, but he admitted his doctors have not used the word "terminal" to describe the illness.

He said: "My doctors have never used the word 'chronic' or 'cure' about my cancer. They've never used the word 'terminal' either.

"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."

George revealed in March he had been diagnosed with coronavirus, and while he had a mild form, his wife, Frances Robathan, ended up getting it "pretty badly".

He added: "The truth is I went in for cancer not coronavirus. When I came back home, my wife got it pretty badly. She didn't go into hospital, but she had the worst of it."

While George has insisted he is "not scared" of passing away for himself, he is "completely scared of it" for his wife.

He added to The Times newspaper: "I don't know if I have ever said I'm ready. You're never ready. But I'm not scared of it.

"I'm really not scared of it for me. I've worked through that. What I would say is that I'm not scared of it for myself, but I am completely scared of it for ... my wife."

In March, George revealed he has a "mild dose" of COVID-19.He said: "If I can live with cancer, I can certainly live with COVID-19.

"I don't want to trivialise because I seem to have had a mild dose, but actually, the very fact that we are living with cancer I think gives us an edge.

"We've confronted those difficult, dark moments in our life. And in some ways, I think that we, those of us living with cancer, are stronger because we kind of know what it is like to go into something where the outcomes are uncertain.

"And I certainly feel that having had that experience, in my case six years as a cancer patient, I went into this feeling actually quite strong."