George Alagiah, a beloved BBC journalist and presenter, passed away at the age of 67. Everyone who knew George, whether they were friends, coworkers, or members of the public, loved him dearly.
George Alagiah was believed to have an outgoing personality. Given the recent news, many people must be interested in learning the reason of death for George Alagiah. Keep reading to know what caused his death in detail.
Who was George Alagiah?
George Maxwell Alagiah was a British newsreader, journalist and television news presenter. He formerly served as the primary presenter of GMT on BBC World News from the program’s inception in 2010 until 2014. He presented the BBC News at Six from 2007 to 2022.
On November 22, 1955, Alagiah was born in Colombo, Ceylon. Therese and engineer Donald Alagiah, his parents, were Tamils from Sri Lanka. His parents relocated to Ghana in West Africa in 1961, where he attended Christ the King International School for his elementary education.
After completing his secondary education at the independent Roman Catholic school St. John’s College in Portsmouth, England, he went on to study politics at Van Mildert College at Durham University.
He served as a sabbatical officer of the Durham Students’ Union while attending Durham, where he also wrote for and eventually edited the student publication Palatinate.
Career
After working for South Magazine for seven years as a print journalist, Alagiah joined the BBC in 1989. He worked as a broadcaster before working as a Southern Africa correspondent in Johannesburg and a Developing World journalist out of London.
He covered a variety of stories as one of the BBC’s top international journalists, including the genocide in Rwanda, the plight of the Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq, and the civil wars in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.
He served as the show’s host from the time it debuted in 2002 until it was rebranded as The World and then another version of World News Today. He joined the BBC Six O’Clock News in January 2003 and co-anchored it until October 2005 with Sophie Raworth and until October 2007 with Natasha Kaplinsky.
He started presenting the Six O’Clock News alone in December 2007. He had been the BBC One O’Clock News and BBC Nine O’Clock News deputy anchor since 1999. He started hosting World News Today in 2006 on BBC World News and BBC Two, which was renamed GMT on February 1, 2010. 2014 saw his final appearance on the show.
Before this, he filled in for primary presenters Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce on BBC News at Ten, usually from Monday to Thursday.
Alagiah, an expert on Africa and the developing world conducted interviews with several notable figures, including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
His other documentaries and features include reports on the Assignment program’s “Lost Cause” of affirmative action in America, the BBC’s Newsnight program’s coverage of Saddam Hussein’s genocide of the Kurds in northern Iraq, and the final Dunkirk veterans’ reunion.
Awards:
Alagiah was a member of the BBC crew that won a BAFTA for its coverage of the Kosovo crisis in 2000. He was the overall winner of the Amnesty International UK Media honours in 1994.
He has received multiple honours, including Best International Report at the Royal Television Society in 1993. In the 2008 New Year’s Honours, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
He spoke at the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Overseas League, as well as at literary festivals in Cheltenham, Keswick, Hay-on-Wye, and London.
He was on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s board. Additionally, he aggressively promoted microfinance as a vehicle for development and made appearances in favour of Opportunity International.
In 2000, he agreed to serve as Parenting UK’s patron. He won the Outstanding Achievement in Television prize at the Asian Awards in 2010.
His first book, The Burning Land, was shortlisted for a Society of Authors award in 2020. A “gripping, pacy thriller about corruption and homicide in South Africa” is how the novel is characterized.
How did George Alagiah die?
George Alagiah, a BBC newsreader, passed away at the age of 67, his agent has said.
Mary Greenham issued the PA news agency the following statement:
“I am so terribly sorry to inform you that George Alagiah died peacefully today, surrounded by his family and loved ones.
“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.”
For more than three decades, he reported and presented for the BBC, hosting BBC News at Six for 20 years while also winning accolades as a foreign correspondent in the years before.
The terrible news was also announced on Twitter by the BBC Press Office.
“It is with deep sadness that the BBC is announcing the death of its much-loved journalist and presenter George Alagiah.”
One of the brightest and boldest reporters of his generation, George presented the news flawlessly while reporting fearlessly from all around the world.
Audiences could tell that he was more than just a superb journalist; they could sense his goodness, empathy, and amazing humanity. Everyone adored him, and they will all miss him dearly.
George Alagiah cause of death
BBC newsreader George Alagiah passed away at the age of 67, after a long battle with bowel cancer.
Alagiah began receiving treatment for colorectal cancer in April 2014.
He had 17 rounds of chemotherapy after receiving his initial diagnosis in 2014, as well as various surgery that included the removal of a significant portion of his liver.
Alagiah tweeted on June 28 that he was “making encouraging progress.” He returned to the BBC on November 10 after declaring on Twitter in late October 2015 that the treatment was finished. He would have additional therapy once it was discovered in January 2018 that the cancer had come back.
In a March 2018 interview with The Sunday Times, Alagiah stated that the screening program in England, which is automatically offered from the age of 60, should be the same as the one in Scotland, where it is automatically offered from the age of 50. This would have allowed for earlier detection of his terminal cancer.
Alagiah stated in June 2020 that the cancer had not yet reached a “chronic” or “terminal” stage despite spreading to his lungs, liver, and lymph nodes.
He declared in October 2022 that his cancer had progressed, and he took a break from television to receive further therapy.
Alagiah made an appearance in a Macmillan Cancer Support advertisement that same year. He discussed how it was like to have stage 4 bowel cancer.
He said in the campaign,
“People always ask me how I cope and it’s the hardest question…”
“The challenge at first was getting my cancer diagnosis straight in my head – despite having so much going for me, a successful career and a loving family, here I was just being told I was dying.”
The renowned newscaster also had the coronavirus in the months before he passed away, but he claimed that having had cancer had given him the tools he needed to fight it.
With over 16,000 deaths each year, bowel cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the UK and the fourth most frequent cancer overall.
What are bowel cancer symptoms?
- A consistent alteration in bowel habits, including frequent urination, looser stools, and occasionally stomach discomfort.
- without any other signs, such as piles, or blood in the stools.
- Always brought on by eating, abdominal pain, discomfort, or bloating can occasionally lead to a reduction in food intake and weight loss.
The NHS advises seeing your doctor if you have one or more of the symptoms and they have lasted for longer than four weeks even though the majority of persons with these symptoms do not have colon cancer.
People between the ages of 60 and 74 can receive a home stool kit every two years as part of a bowel cancer screening program.
Every two years, anyone 75 years of age or older can request a kit by calling the free bowel cancer screening helpline at 0800 707 60 60.
Bowel cancer can be exceedingly challenging to treat in its later stages, but in the early stages, tumours can frequently be surgically removed.
Chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted medications based on the genetics of the tumor are the main treatments for bowel cancer.
Bowel cancer will be discovered in one in 15 men and one in 18 women during their lifetime. In the UK, 53,646 cases of bowel cancer are expected to be diagnosed in 2035 (29,356 males and 24,290 women).
Tributes to George Alagiah
Many people expressed their profound sympathies to his family and expressed how much they loved him. The news of this occurrence has upset his supporters and fans.
TV Presenter Dan Walker wrote: “How sad to hear about the death of George Alagiah. Incredibly well respected and loved both inside and outside the BBC. I hope his family know he inspired a lot of people with his courage 
“
Journalist and Presenter Sangita tweeted: “Growing up, when the BBC’s George Alagiah was on TV my dad would shout “George is on!”. We’d run to watch the man who inspired a generation of British Asian journalists. That scene was replicated across the U.K. We thank you, George. RIP xx”
One of the worst things anyone can go through in life is losing a loved one. Any journey must have a destination at the end. The person’s time on earth has regrettably come to an end now that they have died.
We wish him eternal peace and send our thoughts and prayers to his loved ones, family, friends.
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Rohini (Editor) is a content writer with 3 years of experience in content writing. She joined Medico Topics on the Breaking News trainee scheme in 2022 and now works on MedicoTopics.com. She possesses a keen interest in political and entertainment matters, including the latest and most widely circulating celebrity rumors, and comprehensive resources on the wealth of renowned actors, athletes, players, and politicians around the globe.
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