Jeremy Bowen has gone public with his bowel cancer diagnosis for the first time - after getting tested without having any of the usual symptoms.
The BBC's Middle East Editor, 59, is now undergoing treatment after having surgery to remove a tumour in his bowel.
Appearing on BBC Breakfast alongside Deborah Alsina, chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, Jeremy said: "I was diagnosed with it last October.
"I had funny pains in my legs and my back when I was in Iraq last May, I went to hospital for a couple of days but they didn't say it was cancer, they said it was scar tissue from a previous operation.
"I had no symptoms but thought I should get a test, it came back positive. I had a colonoscopy, when they put a camera on a stick up your bottom - it's not nearly as bad as it sounds, and they give you lots of drugs - from that they found a tumour. I had an operation to take it away and now I'm going through chemotherapy.
Susanna Reid makes dig at Gemma Collins as she reveals she's signed record deal
"It's not the thing you choose but I'm confident that I'm getting very good medical treatment and I'll be OK."
Jeremy said it could have been caught earlier, but had it been any later the cancer would have been a lot more serious.
"The key thing is to get tested, I've told all my friends to get to their doctors for a test. Bowels and poo are not the normal things people want to talk about, but actually it's part of all our lives. If you feel a bit embarrassed and you leave it too long - a gastroenterologist tweeted me this morning to say, 'tell them don't die of embarrassment, for god's sake'."
Nipsey Hussle dead: Rapper due to give talk on gang violence hours before he was shot dead
On his decision to go public at the start of Bowel Cancer Awareness Week, Jeremy went on: "I've kept quiet about it except to my nearest and dearest and friends, but I thought why not? And if me coming on your programme means a few extra people decide to get tested and as a result get their cancers caught, then it's time well spent.
Actually if there is something wrong with you, it's far better to know. There's great treatment there. It's more reassuring to know that something's being dealt with than thinking, 'I'll wait till next week'. Don't wait till next week!"
He added: "The chemo is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, in terms of the side effects. I think it can affect people differently and I've been very 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."
Jeremy's BBC colleague George Alagiah also battled bowel cancer in 2014, returning to the News At Six in January after more than a year off for treatment.
He said his disease is now in a "holding pattern" after several gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and three major operations, including the removal of most of his liver after the stage 4 cancer spread to his organ and lymph nodes.
