Rachael Rebecca Bland (née Hodges; 21 January 1978 – 5 September 2018) was a British journalist and presenter from

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales. She worked for

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...

and ''

BBC North West Tonight ''BBC North West Tonight'' is the BBC's regional television news programme covering North West England and the Isle of Man. Produced by BBC North West, the programme airs at 1.30pm (as ''North West Today''), 6.30pm and 10.30pm, with shorter bu ...

''. She was known for her podcast, '' You, Me and the Big C'', which was broadcast while she was ill with breast cancer, and in which she discussed issues and treatment of the disease. In the final months of her life she wrote a memoir, ''For Freddie'', which was published posthumously early the following year.

Career

Bland was born in

. She started her career presenting news bulletins with the

BBC Local Radio BBC Local Radio (also referred to as Local BBC Radio) is the BBC's local and regional radio division for England and the Channel Islands, consisting of forty stations. History The popularity of pirate radio was to challenge a change within ...

station

BBC Wiltshire BBC Radio Wiltshire is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the English county of Wiltshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Prospect Pla ...

. She then moved to BBC Radio 5 Live, at first reading the news on Richard Bacon's show, where she became the straight talking foil to Bacon on The Special Half Hour Club. Bland then started to present sports on television, as well as acting as a relief and weekend presenter on the

BBC News Channel BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic telev ...

and

. When BBC Radio 5 Live moved to

MediaCityUK MediaCityUK is a mixed-use property development on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The project was developed by Peel Media; its principal tenants are media organisations and the Quayside MediaCi ...

Salford Quays Salford Quays is an area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England, near the end of the Manchester Ship Canal. Previously the site of Manchester Docks, it became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in the United Kingdom foll ...

in 2011, Bland started to present on ''

'' as both a newsreader and as the main relief presenter.

Personal life

In September 2013, she married BBC Radio 5 Live producer Steve Bland. They had a son together, Freddie. Bland competed as a

triathlete A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the d ...

, including the 2010

London Triathlon The London Triathlon (currently known as the "AJ Bell London Triathlon", and previously the ''Virgin Active London Triathlon'', ''Mazda London Triathlon'' and the ''Michelob ULTRA London Triathlon'', for sponsorship reasons) is an annual triathlo ...

, raising funds for

Breast Cancer Care Breast Cancer Care is the only specialist UK-wide charity in the UK providing care, support and information to anyone affected by breast cancer. The charity's headquarters are in London, with additional offices in Sheffield, Cardiff, and Glasgow. ...

. She completed the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

several times.

Illness

Bland was diagnosed with

triple-negative breast cancer Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is any breast cancer that lacks or show low levels of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression and/or gene amplification (i.e. the tum ...

in November 2016. In the early stages of her condition, she continued to present Radio 5 Live, saying she would rather be known as "Rachael the news presenter" than "Rachael the cancer patient". She received criticism by

Internet troll In slang, a troll is a person who posts or makes inflammatory, insincere, digressive, extraneous, or off-topic messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, a online video game), or in real life, with the int ...

s who accused her of "not fighting cancer hard enough". Following the diagnosis, Bland started presenting the BBC

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

'' You, Me and the Big C'' to raise awareness of cancer, discussing the disease with celebrities and providing advice of how to manage it. The podcast featured fellow cancer patients Deborah James and

Lauren Mahon Lauren Stacey Mahon (born 2 May 1985) is a British cancer activist and founder of Girls vs Cancer, an online community raising awareness and supporting cancer patients. She was named in the BBC ''100 Women'' in 2019. Life and career Mahon was ...

and became popular for its discussion of cancer, with medical experts regularly appearing on the programme. It featured the trio's

self-deprecating humour Self-deprecation is the act of reprimanding oneself by belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest. It can be used as a way to make complaints, express modesty, invoke optimal reactions or add humour. It may also be u ...

to cope with their situation; when Bland announced she was unsure that she would survive to the end of the series, James retorted, "Shut up, Rachael, stop being so over-dramatic." In early 2018, she participated in a clinical trial of experimental treatment at the

Christie Hospital The Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, is one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. It is managed by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was established by a committee under the chairmanship of Richard Ch ...

, Manchester, that she hoped would prevent or postpone the cancer. This was unsuccessful, and in May, she announced that her cancer had spread and was now incurable. She hoped that clinical treatment would still be available so she could live longer. She continued to blog and run ''You, Me and the Big C'', and hoped that she could do enough to give her son memories of her life. Towards the end of her life, she announced she had written her memoirs, which she hoped would be published some day. In June, a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

site was set up in order to allow her to have a family holiday while she still could.

Death and legacy

In August 2018, Bland announced that she had less than a year to live. On 3 September, she announced on her

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account that her "time had come", and that she only had days left. She died two days later at the age of 40. ''You, Me and the Big C'' reached number one on the

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Podcast charts during this week. Family and colleagues paid her tribute including Dan Walker, Dame Kelly Holmes, former

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

and Busted's

Charlie Simpson Charles Robert Simpson (born 7 June 1985) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is a member of multi-BRIT Award-winning rock band Busted and he is also the lead vocalist and the rhythm guitarist in the British post-hardcore band F ...

. Health secretary

Matt Hancock Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 201 ...

said, "Her legacy is a testament to how much more we need to do to beat this dreadful disease." Her co-hosts continued the ''You, Me and the Big C'' podcast. On 21 February 2019, her memoir ''For Freddie'' (which is dedicated to her son) was published. On the 28 June 2019 American rock band

The Killers The Killers are an American rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingd ...

dedicated their song "

A Dustland Fairytale "A Dustland Fairytale" is a song by American rock band The Killers, released as the fourth single from the band's third studio album, ''Day & Age'' (2008). The Killers performed the song live on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'' accompanied ...

" to Bland, while in concert at

Cardiff Castle Cardiff Castle ( cy, Castell Caerdydd) is a medieval castle and Victorian Gothic revival mansion located in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. The original motte and bailey castle was built in the late 11th century by Norman invaders on top ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bland, Rachael 1978 births 2018 deaths Deaths from breast cancer Journalists from Cardiff BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC North West newsreaders and journalists Welsh female triathletes Welsh female marathon runners Mass media people from Cardiff Deaths from cancer in England British women television journalists British women radio presenters British women podcasters British podcasters Sportspeople from Cardiff