Rachael Bland: Terminally ill BBC newsreader reveals she's wrapped birthday presents for her son to open until he's 21

The BBC newsreader revealed on Monday that she has days to live
PA
Tom Powell4 September 2018

Terminally ill newsreader Rachael Bland has revealed she’s wrapped birthday presents up for her son to open every year until he’s 21.

The BBC Radio 5 Live presenter, who only has days to live due to incurable breast cancer , detailed plans for preparing her family for life without her in a blog post.

She said she is working on a memoir titled ‘For Freddie’ which contains a lifetime of advice for her two-year-old son, while she is also wrapping up 18 years’ worth of birthday gifts for him to open, starting on his fourth birthday.

The newsreader said the gifts would include "personal effects like my notepads – so he can see what my writing was like. Or the perfume he helped pick out for me earlier this year so he’ll remember my smell.”

Writing in the Huffington Post, she said: “The main thing is that, while he’s so young, I want him to remember me in some way.

“I hope the book and these gifts and notes will leave an imprint of my love behind for the rest of his life.”

She also revealed she has a Whatsapp group which includes her husband Steve’s sister, so she can pass on instructions that he might find too hard to deal with currently.

They include not cutting their son’s hair too short until he’s older, and making sure he goes to “the very best school and university possible, so long as that’s what he wants”.

On Monday, she shared an update on Twitter which said: "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."

Rachael Bland co-hosts the You, Me and the Big C podcast
BBC

Mrs Bland, who co-hosts the You, Me and the Big C podcast with Deborah James and Lauren Mahon, confirmed they would carry on the show without her, adding: "Au revoir my friends."

The 40-year-old has been married to husband Steve for four years and they are due to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary on September 14.

Mrs Bland has said she was diagnosed with primary triple-negative breast cancer in November 2016 and has been documenting her journey on her blog Big C Little Me, which has the tag line "Putting the can in cancer".

On August 3, she revealed she had been ruled out of clinical trials because of a rise in enzymes.

She wrote on Instagram: "Another bump in the road. Whilst I was concentrating on my lungs my liver was busy throwing a [spanner] in the works.

"An enzyme called ALT has been steadily on the rise since I started trials. It is a sign of liver damage and right now it rules me out of any further trials.

"So we're chucking everything at it. Change of steroid. No alcohol and liver detox diet. And hoping those numbers start going down again.

"This just got serious. Game face on."

Rachael Bland, who has a two-year-old son, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016

She added that she was rushing to complete a memoir for her son, saying: "It's now a real race against time for me to finish my book 'For Freddie'. If you need me, you'll find me typing and drinking gallons of water!"

She later wrote on Twitter that she had secured an agent, who was working on finding her a publisher for the memoir.

Mrs Bland's Radio 5 colleague Richard Bacon was among those offering her support on Twitter, writing: "Days. Devastating. Rachael I know saying I'm thinking of you (and our magnificent time together on air, especially all that late night fun) doesn't change anything.

"But I am and I'm so very sorry. Your podcast has helped change the way people talk about all this. You're wonderful."

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