BBC newsreader Kate Williams has 'mother of all surgeries' to battle rare form of cancer

BBC newsreader Kate Williams has revealed she has a rare form of cancer.

The BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster was diagnosed with cystic peritoneal mesothelioma in 2017 but following surgery later that year her first annual scan showed no evidence of disease.

Williams told 5 Live's You, Me and The Big C podcast: "They never say you are all clear. Because there's so few of us that have it, the stats are you can have up to 70 per cent reoccurrence."

The married mother-of-two said she was only aware of three other people in the UK who have cystic peritoneal mesothelioma, which affects the abdominal cavity - the space between the diaphragm and the pelvis.

Williams said of her surgery: "It's called MOAS - mother of all surgeries.

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"They took out the cervix, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, greater omentum, lesser omentum, pelvic peritoneum, another bit of my peritoneum."

She added: "I keep saying I'm lucky or it wasn't too bad - my surgery was only about six hours.

"People say, 'Oh six hours' but some patients who have this, it's 12 to 14 hours."

Williams said she still had problems with her bowels and stomach as well as weak bones following the surgery and will continue to have annual scans - although her first scan in November was clear.

The newsreader confessed it was “really lonely” having such a rare disease.

She explained: "If you look at the medical literature, they often quote 153 cases in the world.

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"And in the UK I know of three other people, mainly through a Facebook group that I joined.

"If you look at mesothelioma it's not a nice one to look at. It's very aggressive, malignant, quite often caused by asbestos."

Williams added: "It's also quite traumatic because every time [I see a new doctor] I have to explain it," she added.

The broadcaster has been flooded with messages of support on Twitter, including from former 5 Live presenter Shelagh Fogarty and BBC East political correspondent Andrew Sinclair.

You, Me and The Big C - a podcast about living with cancer - was launched by BBC presenter Rachael Bland, who died last year from cancer.