EXCLUSIVENick Owen credits his enduring 40-year friendship with Anne Diamond for helping them through parallel cancer battles 

  • If you have been affected by anything in this article please call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00
  • Nick Owen is fronting a new Deadly Silent prostate cancer podcast, brought to you by the UK’s leading specialist cancer care provider GenesisCare 

Those of us with longer memories will perhaps remember them as breakfast television’s first professional golden couple. 

Long before Susanna Reid and Piers Morgan, Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield or even the recently paired Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley, it was Nick Owen and Anne Diamond who millions of Brits woke to each morning. 

With an ever-revolving wardrobe of comfortable knitwear and a relaxed, personable demeanor, Owen was the conventional yin to Diamond’s sprightly and vivacious yang on TV-am. 

Launched in 1983, it would summon the birth of breakfast TV as we know it, cement a long-lasting working relationship and, crucially, a close personal friendship that still endures to this day. 

And Owen, now 76 and working away from mainstream television, admits there is a terrible irony in Diamond’s breast cancer diagnosis coming shortly before doctors discovered he had an ‘aggressive’ form of prostate cancer. 

Nick Owen admits there is a terrible irony in former colleague Anne Diamond’s breast cancer diagnosis coming shortly before his own prostate cancer diagnosis
The pair enjoyed a long working relationship that began on breakfast show TV-am in 1983

READ MORE HERE: How TV-am created a legion of stars 

Speaking to MailOnline as he launches new prostate cancer podcast Deadly Silent, he said: ‘She says she’s doing fine and I say I’m doing fine, but it knocks the stuffing out of you. 

‘We’ve kept in touch with each other. It’s ironic really, isn’t it, that people of a certain age associate us as a couple, very much going back 40 years plus now, and we almost simultaneously end up with the two prime male and female cancers and are sort of being treated in parallel.’ 

The presenter admits his enduring friendship with Diamond, 69, has enabled them to offer one another emotional support while working their way through respective cancer treatments. 

He added: ‘We find great comfort in that because we’re very close friends and have been for a long time, even though we don’t see each other every day like we used to. 

‘I like to feel that we’ve both helped each other get through it.’ 

Owen confirmed his diagnosis in August 2023, just two months after Diamond revealed her own cancer battle, having been given the sobering news on the same day she found out she was receiving an MBE. 

The presenter started going for regular PSA (prostate specific-antigen) tests after turning 60,  but an acute awareness of the illness and its tell-tale symptoms – difficulty urinating or urinating too frequently among them – didn’t prepare him for a positive diagnosis.  

He said: ‘It was last year that my GP said I think your figures are slightly high for someone of your age – I was 75 at the time – and I think you should see someone. 

Owen was the conventional yin to Diamond’s sprightly and vivacious yang on TV-am, a show they co-presented until his departure in 1986

WHAT IS PROSTATE CANCER?



How many people does it kill? 

More than 11,800 men a year – or one every 45 minutes – are killed by the disease in Britain, compared with about 11,400 women dying of breast cancer.

It means prostate cancer is behind only lung and bowel in terms of how many people it kills in Britain. 

In the US, the disease kills 26,000 men each year.

Despite this, it receives less than half the research funding of breast cancer and treatments for the disease are trailing at least a decade behind.

How many men are diagnosed annually?

Every year, upwards of 52,300 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK – more than 140 every day.   

How quickly does it develop? 

Prostate cancer usually develops slowly, so there may be no signs someone has it for many years, according to the NHS

If the cancer is at an early stage and not causing symptoms, a policy of ‘watchful waiting’ or ‘active surveillance’ may be adopted. 

Some patients can be cured if the disease is treated in the early stages.

But if it is diagnosed at a later stage, when it has spread, then it becomes terminal and treatment revolves around relieving symptoms.

Thousands of men are put off seeking a diagnosis because of the known side effects from treatment, including erectile dysfunction.

Tests and treatment

Tests for prostate cancer are haphazard, with accurate tools only just beginning to emerge. 

There is no national prostate screening programme as for years the tests have been too inaccurate.

Doctors struggle to distinguish between aggressive and less serious tumours, making it hard to decide on treatment.

Men over 50 are eligible for a ‘PSA’ blood test which gives doctors a rough idea of whether a patient is at risk.

But it is unreliable. Patients who get a positive result are usually given a biopsy which is also not fool-proof. 

Scientists are unsure as to what causes prostate cancer, but age, obesity and a lack of exercise are known risks. 

Anyone with any concerns can speak to Prostate Cancer UK’s specialist nurses on 0800 074 8383 or visit prostatecanceruk.org

Diamond, pictured with Nick Owen on TV-am in 1985, received her diagnosis on the same day she was told she would be given an OBE

‘I was very reluctant at the time and said “they’re not very high are they? Are you sure?” And he said “yeah, just for reassurance if nothing else.”

‘So I did go and see a specialist and he said he wasn’t too worried either by the figures but let’s have an MRI and the MRI showed there was something. 

‘Then I had a biopsy which showed there really was something and it was aggressive. It was trying to burst out of my prostate, and that is the big danger of course, when it breaks from your prostate and travels through the body. Who knows what will happen. 

‘So that’s how it developed. I didn’t have any symptoms really, and it was all a terrible shock.’ 

Owen’s devoted second wife Vicki Beevers was by his side as he began the difficult process of informing the four adult children he shares with first wife Jill Lavery, before considering the best available forms of treatment. 

‘She was with me throughout all my meetings with various medics, so she was right there for the very emotional moment when we were told how serious it was, and that was horrible,’ he recalled. 

‘It is an emotional shock, and the psychological element of it, and also physically you go through a lot of stuff that’s not much fun.’  

Owen began the difficult process of informing the four adult children he shares with first wife Jill Lavery, before considering the best available forms of treatment (pictured in 1990)
Owen’s devoted second wife Vicki Beevers (pictured) was by his side throughout the ordeal

IS IT SAFE TO EXERCISE WHILE BATTLING CANCER?



There are no guidelines in the UK about exercising while battling cancer.

However, studies have shown it to be safe and beneficial for many patients. 

For cancers of the breast, prostate and bowel, studies have found the same level of exercise as is recommended for the general population may be helpful.

Doctors usually advise at least half-an-hour of moderate exercise, like walking, a day, five days a week. 

One study found women battling breast cancer were less likely to be anxious or depressed if they worked out for half-an-hour four times a week.

Another trial introduced an exercise programme at hospital for patients being treated for breast or prostate cancer.

The scientists found these patients were less tired at the end of their therapy. 

However, cancer that affects the bones may increase the risk of a break.

And patients whose immunity has been suppressed due to treatment should avoid exercising in public gyms.

Women with breast cancer should also be cautious about upper body training.

And many patients experience pins and needles as a result of their cancer treatment, which can make weight bearing exercise dangerous.

Cancer sufferers should always talk to their doctor before embarking on a new exercise regimen. 

Source: Cancer Research UK 

‘And then I had to contact my kids, who are grown up now. I’ve got three sons and one daughter, and of the three sons two are in their forties and one is in his late thirties. 

‘I had to explain to them that things are a bit serious, and it’s not easy on the phone, to be honest.’ 

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men across the United Kingdom. One in eight men will get it at some point in their lives and more than 52,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.

National statistics from GenesisCare suggest a staggering 80 percent of men are reluctant to talk about the condition, while 71 percent feel embarrassed by the warning signs. 

And Owen says the worrying figures were the catalyst for his new podcast, which offers men a safe space to talk about prostate cancer, while the disease’s potential hereditary link prompted him to make his three sons hyper-vigilant.

He said: ‘It makes them wary, of course. I can’t stress to them enough that they do need to keep an eye on things. Perhaps they’re not the age to worry yet, but bearing in mind their father has had it, any time after 40 I would want them to think about seeing a doctor and having a PSA etcetera.

‘The hereditary thing is quite a big factor. I actually met someone, a woman, who told me her father had prostate cancer, and so have his three brothers. 

‘So that’s four brothers, all in their sixties, all had prostate cancer, and their father had it as well. That is a perfect illustration of the hereditary familial element of it.’ 

 Owen is now cancer free and back at work – albeit on a part-time basis – after having his prostate, including 25 lymph nodes, completely removed during a painstaking emergency operation. 

‘Hopefully, you can never say never, but hopefully the cancer is all gone,’ he said. ‘But there was no question in my mind that that’s what needed to be done because it was aggressive and it had to be done quickly. 

‘I’m working two days a week and I wouldn’t want to do more than that anyway now, because I’m 76. I’m still loving work, I still love the news and I’m still an avid devourer of news so I want to keep going as long as I can.

‘Everyone is now working that much longer in life, some by choice, some not. I am through choice and I want to keep going, I want to keep the old brain ticking over.

Along with their stint on TV-am, Owen and Diamond had their own current affairs morning programme on the BBC in the 1990s, Good Morning With Anne And Nick

‘I’m just so grateful that I have reached this point because a year ago things were getting really tough.’ 

The presenter is now preparing to host his podcast with a fresh outlook and a renewed awareness of his own mortality after making it through the most difficult year of his life. 

‘You suddenly get hit a little bit harder when people that you know pass away, especially in their seventies, as I am, and you appreciate the day to day more and realize you have got to live today, for today, and not just worry about the future,’ hew said. 

‘You have to appreciate the day, and appreciate the sunshine when you occasionally get it. 

‘It’s slowed me up, made me realize that some things are more important than others and appreciate the people around me, and I am eternally grateful that I’ve come through such an awful time.’ 

Nick Owen is fronting a new ‘Deadly Silent’ prostate cancer podcast, brought to you by the UK’s leading specialist cancer care provider GenesisCare, who offer advanced and effective 5-day prostate cancer treatment. Visit genesiscare.com/uk/deadlysilent for more information.

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