Rachael Bland has died aged 40 after a two-year battle with cancer. The BBC Radio 5 Live presenter passed away surrounded by her family, five months after learning her cancer was incurable. A post was shared via Rachael’s Twitter confirming the sad news. The tweet from her husband Steve 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.’
Rachael is survived by her husband Steve and her three-year-old son Freddie. Friends and listeners of Rachael’s podcast shared their condolences under the post.
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.’
The radio host was diagnosed with primary triple-negative breast cancer on 22 November 2016, which had spread to four lymph nodes under her right arm. The following month Rachael began chemotherapy, with the presenter undergoing a lumpectomy, auxillary node clearance and a mastectomy in 2017. Sadly, in October 2017, a scan discovered that the cancer had spread to the opposite lymph nodes, and in April this year, Rachael learned that her cancer was incurable.