Presenter Nick Owen on prostate cancer

BBC Midlands Today news anchor Nick Owen has announced he has undergone surgery for prostate cancer.

The news comes just weeks after former co-host of ITV’s TV-am, and BBC One’s Good Morning, Anne Diamond revealed she had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Nick told the BBC that his diagnosis ‘came out of the blue’ and he was ‘told that it was pretty serious and had to do something about it soon’.

“My GP insisted that I go and see a specialist just to reassure me… he saved my life… [The doctor said] that it was extensive and aggressive and I had prostate cancer full-on and something needed to be done and done pretty fast… And that was probably the worst day of my life, well certainly one of them, it was a very grim moment.”

Owen, who is 75, has hosted many programmes for both ITV and the BBC over the years including in the late 70s and early 80s as a sports reporter for the TV ATV Today from Birmingham.

The sports theme carried on with a stint hosting ITV Sport programmes and at Tyne Tees with The Football Show. Nick has also hosted regional news programmes including North East Tonight for Tyne Tees and, since 1997, BBC Midlands Today.

Nationally Nick is known for sports quiz show Sporting Triangles (Central TV) as well as Good Morning Britain (TV-am/ITV) and Good Morning with Anne and Nick. The lifelong Luton Town fan spent nearly a decade as their chairman. Nick was awarded the Baird Medal by the Royal Television Society, Midlands, in 2006 for lifelong achievement in television. Owen has also previously worked at the Birmingham Post and what was BBC Radio Birmingham before joining ATV in 1979.

Nick is keen to get back to work at the Birmingham-based BBC Midlands Today.

“After 45 years in television, 54 years as a journalist, my goodness. I’m very lucky. I feel blessed…. I know I’m not the youngest. In fact, I think I’m probably the oldest regional TV presenter in the country, probably by a mile, but I love it,”