Lauren Laverne: From Cancer Recovery to Her Latest Smouldering Myeloma Diagnosis

English radio broadcaster and television presenter Lauren Laverne recently revealed that she has been diagnosed with a rare blood and bone marrow disorder that could develop into blood cancer. The news came less than two years after she received an “all clear” in November 2024, following a cancer diagnosis in August that year.

Laverne is a broadcaster for BBC, presenting the late morning to lunchtime show on BBC Radio 6 Music. She also hosts Desert Island Discs, a long-running radio broadcast programme on BBC Radio 4. Prior to her career in the broadcasting industry, Laverne was the lead singer and guitarist in the alternative rock band Kenickie. The band was formed in 1994 but subsequently disbanded in 1998.

Back in August 2024, Laverne shared in an Instagram post that she was diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, her cancer was "caught early and unexpectedly during a screening test" and she was "expected to make a full recovery". However, no additional details were revealed about her cancer diagnosis.

By publicly sharing her cancer story, Laverne hopes to raise awareness about the disease and the importance of cancer screening. “I also want to say that if you’re avoiding a test or putting off an appointment to get yourself checked out please, please do it today. Half of us will get cancer at some point, and if you do, finding out asap is everything,” she wrote.

After undergoing several months of treatment, in November 2024, Laverne shared that she was declared cancer-free. She received “the all clear” from her doctors “after taking some time off to get better”. In her post, Laverne thanked her medical team and her loved ones for their support.

Laverne added that her cancer experience had taught her "so much about what really matters" in life.

“I now see more beauty in ordinary things than I could have imagined, and feel more than ever that the small things in life - the connections we make and care we take with each other - are the big things really. I have so much to be grateful for and excited about,” she wrote.

In July 2026, Laverne announced that she had been diagnosed with a rare blood and bone marrow disorder. However, she added that "at the moment I feel OK and don't need treatment".

"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," she wrote in an Instagram post. "It has nothing to do with my previous illness or my recent surgery, it's just one of those things."

Smouldering multiple myeloma (SMM) is an early form of myeloma that does not cause any symptoms. The disease can take anywhere from many months to years to progress into active (symptomatic) myeloma and most people do not need immediate treatment. Depending on the individual, the disease may or may not progress into active myeloma. There is currently no cure for the disease.

Reflecting on her diagnosis, Laverne shared, "It's been a lot, especially coming less than two years after my last diagnosis, but l know that seeing others in the public eye cope with comparable situations has helped me, so I thought I'd be upfront about it."

She also thanked her doctors for their vigilance, citing this as the “second big problem my GP has caught early”.

Reflecting on her diagnosis, she wrote, “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.”