The BBC Radio 6 presenter was previously declared cancer-free in November 2025
Less than two years after undergoing cancer treatment, BBC Radio 6 star Lauren Laverne has shared another unexpected health diagnosis. The broadcaster and regular The One Show host took to Instagram today (Friday, July 17) to share that she has been diagnosed with smouldering myeloma, a very early and inactive form of myeloma, reports the Manchester Evening News.
The diagnosis comes after a difficult few years for the broadcaster, who first disclosed that she was going through cancer treatment back in August 2024, after a screening test caught the disease “early and unexpectedly”.
Just over a year later in November 2025, Lauren was given the all clear. She told Good Housekeeping: “The day I was discharged, we managed to get downstairs and [husband] Graeme got me into the car and we didn’t even switch it on,” she told Good Housekeeping at the time. “We just sat in the car and both burst into tears and cried.”
Sharing her latest health news in a statement on Instagram, Lauren wrote: “Hey. So – personal news. I’m quite a private person by nature but am sharing this as one of the many things I’ve learned after going through health challenges in recent years is that talking about this stuff helps people. I’ve been diagnosed with something called smouldering myeloma (yes that is a weird name and no I’d never heard of it either). It’s an asymptomatic blood and bone marrow disorder that in some people can develop into blood cancer.
“Thankfully for me, the risk of this happening in my case is pretty low. At the moment I feel OK and don’t need treatment. Most people my age who have it have no idea – it tends to be cancer survivors like me who are diagnosed early as we’re so carefully monitored. It has nothing to do with previous illness or my recent surgery, it’s just one of those things.”
Lauren continued: “It is a chronic condition – no cure yet and it does mean my immune system is a bit compromised, so I will need to take good care of myself and I will be carefully monitored with blood tests, MRIs and bone marrow biopsies (which I have recently discovered are even less fun than they sound). It’s been a lot, especially coming less than two years after my last diagnosis, but I know that seeing others in the public eye cope with comparable situations has helped me, so I thought I’d be upfront about it.”
“I’ve had some difficult experiences in the last eight years, but I have learned more from them than some people do in a lifetime and that is helping me right now. I am so grateful for that. I also want to say thank you to my family, friends and the 6 Music team for their love and support and to the doctors, consultants and nurses who have been helping me as well as my brilliant therapist and my wonderful GP who are both always in my corner.
She added: “This is the second Big Problem my GP has caught early and it is frankly impossible to adequately express my gratitude. I was pretty blasé about my persistently low iron levels but he insisted we get to the bottom of what was going on. My message to others would be: be like him, not me! Advocate for yourself if you need to and ask to see a haematologist if you are in the same situation.”
She rounded off her post: “I’m taking a couple of weeks holiday and will be back to work as normal after that. I feel like I have more to say about this and the other experiences I’ve had, so maybe I’ll find a place to do that soon. For now lots of love, especially to anyone dealing with similar issues. LL.”
What is smouldering myeloma?
Smouldering myeloma is an early, inactive form of myeloma, a type of blood and bone marrow cancer. Unlike active myeloma, it causes no symptoms and does not actively damage organs or bones. It sits on a spectrum between MGUS (Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance), a benign precursor condition, and active myeloma, which requires immediate treatment.
According to Myeloma UK, smouldering myeloma is typically discovered by chance, often during routine blood tests or investigations for an unrelated condition, as it produces no noticeable symptoms. In the case of cancer survivors such as Lauren, it can be picked up early due to the close monitoring they receive after treatment.
The most common age to develop smouldering myeloma is between 60-70 years, and the condition is slightly more common in men. While the exact number of people with smouldering myeloma is not known, some estimates put the figure as up to 1 in 200 people.
A large number of people diagnosed with smouldering myeloma will go on to develop active myeloma at some point, though this can take a long time and varies from person to person. Around half of all patients progress to active myeloma within five years of diagnosis, though some people remain stable for many years and never end up developing the active form of the disease.
In some cases, smouldering myeloma can develop into a related condition called AL amyloidosis.
There is currently no cure for smouldering myeloma, and patients are not usually treated straight away. Instead, they are monitored closely through regular blood tests, MRI scans and bone marrow biopsies so that treatment can begin at the most appropriate time if the condition progresses.
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