Nick Owen has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and has undergone surgery, the BBC Midlands Today presenter has announced. After a period of absence from the programme, the 75-year-old broadcaster spoke on Monday about the impact of the condition on his life since he received the news in April. “13 April, a date [that] will for ever be imprinted on my mind,” he said on the show. “I went to a specialist, he wasn’t too worried because my figures weren’t that high. But he decided I ought to have a scan, and then the scan said there’s something dodgy going on, and then he sent me for a biopsy, which he did. And the results of that were the killer.” He said doctors told him the cancer was “extensive and aggressive”. “I had prostate cancer full-on, and something needed to be done pretty fast,” he said. “And that was probably the worst day of my life, or certainly one of them.” “It was a very grim moment … driving home after that sort of news and ringing people, texting people, my phone went crazy for hours on end. And it was a very, very difficult time for me, and indeed for my wife, Vicki, who was by my side all the time through this.” Owen said he had undergone surgery and planned to return to work at the BBC in the autumn. “It all came out of the blue,” he said. “So almost immediately, I came off work and had an operation and hopefully [I’m] through it now, here I am.” Owen married his long-term partner Vicki Beevers in July 2020, and has four children from his previous marriage to Jill Lavery. He was the chairman of Luton Town football club between 2008 and 2017 and is also known for his broadcasting collaboration with journalist Anne Diamond. Along with their stint on TV-am, they had their own current affairs morning programme on the BBC in the 1990s, Good Morning with Anne and Nick. Diamond, now a GB News presenter, announced in June that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. A BBC spokesperson said: “Nick has been one of the faces of Midlands Today for more than 25 years. Our viewers and his colleagues have missed him dearly in recent weeks. We can’t wait to welcome him back to the studio as soon as he’s ready. We all wish him a speedy recovery.” Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. One in eight men will get it at some point in their lives and more than 52,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.