BCC Radio 5 Live presenter, Rachel Bland has died of breast cancer just two days after she posted a gut-wrenching tweet informing that she had only days to live.
Informing about the 40-year-old presenter’s death, the tweet posted from her official Twitter handle read, “Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family. We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support. You’ll never know how much they meant to her. Steve and Freddie xxx”
Our beautiful, courageous Rachael died peacefully this morning surrounded by her close family. We are crushed but she would want me to thank everyone who took an interest in her story or sent messages of support. You’ll never know how much they meant to her. Steve and Freddie xxx pic.twitter.com/soq7YHvF9u
— Rachael Bland (@Rachael_Hodges) September 5, 2018
Rachel, who is survived by a two-year-old son Freddie, was in a hurry to complete a memoir so that her son could remember his mother when she was not around. On 3 September, a tweet posted by her had said how her doctors had phoned her to say that she had only days to live. “In the words of the legendary Frank S – I’m afraid the time has come my friends. And suddenly. I’m told I’ve only got days. It’s very surreal. Thank you so much for all the support I’ve received. Debs and lozz will continue with the #youmebigc podcast. Au revoir my friends.”
BBC Radio 5 Live also paid tribute to their colleague on social media. They tweeted, “Mother to Freddie. Wife to Steve. Our treasured colleague Rachael Bland has died. She inspired so many with her blogs, the chart-topping podcast You Me and The Big C and certainly put the can in cancer. We will miss her dearly.”
Her breast cancer has metastasised, where the cancer cells have spread from the primary cancer in the breast through the lymphatic or blood system to other parts of the body.
She has been writing a memoir for her two-year-old son Freddie, to share “all the stories and advice I would have given… but won’t be around to do in person”.
“I’m not scared of dying. I only fear for those I leave behind,” she wrote in the Sunday Telegraph last month.