Veteran journalist Jeremy Bowen diagnosed with bowel cancer

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Media captionBBC Middle East Editor on bowel cancer diagnosis

Veteran BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has said he has been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

The former BBC Breakfast host said he was undergoing chemotherapy after noticing “funny pains in my legs and in my back” whilst in Iraq last May.

Screening for bowel cancer in England is to start taking place aged 50, Public Health England said last year.

April is bowel cancer awareness month and Bowen revealed his diagnosis to raise awareness of the disease.

• Bowel screening in England to start at 50

• Health screening 'not meeting targets'

Doctors initially believed the veteran journalist's pain was due to scarring from previous surgery, he told BBC Breakfast, the show which he presented alongside Sophie Raworth between 2000 and 2002.

“I had no symptoms - none of the classic bowel cancer symptoms. Nothing at all. But I thought I should get a test”, he said.

He said he received a positive result and had a colonoscopy - a camera inserted into the colon to look for signs of cancer.

“It's not nearly as bad as it sounds - they give you lots of drugs,” he said.

Surgeons found a tumour, which they removed, and he was currently having chemotherapy, he said.

'Get tested'

Bowen, born in Cardiff, and a BBC journalist for 35 years, said his diagnosis “could have been earlier, but had it been later it would have been much more serious”.

The key thing is: get tested. I've been saying to all my friends: get tested.

“Things to do with your bowels and poo ... are not things people normally want to talk about. But actually it's part of all our lives and you need to work on it.”

He said a gastroenterologist had told him: “Don't die of embarrassment, for God's sake.”

He said the chemotherapy “is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be in terms of side effects, but it affects people differently and I think I've just been quite lucky to tolerate it better than I expected”.

“You've got to keep positive about things in life - it's all part of the journey, as they say on Strictly [Come Dancing],” he added.