BBC presenter Rachael Bland reveals "incurable" cancer

From Digital Spy

BBC Radio 5 live newsreader and presenter Rachael Bland (above left) has revealed that her breast cancer is "incurable".

Bland, who blogs about having cancer, said in her latest post that her hopes rest on clinical trials and that she's become a "lab rat".

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2016, and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy in 2017, before having surgery this year.

The You, Me and the Big C podcast presenter was with her 2-year-old son Freddie and his friends at an ice cream farm when she received a call with the results of some biopsies.

She wrote on her blog 'Big C little me': "My heart raced as I answered it, knowing a phone call did not bode well. Then came the words, 'I am so sorry, it's bad news. The biopsies have come back showing the same cancer is back and is in the skin.'

"I watched my little Freddie innocently playing away in a tyre in the barn and my heart broke for him.

"I scooped him up and dashed home and then had to break [husband] Steve's heart with the news that my cancer was now metastatic and therefore incurable."

Olympic medal-winning sprinter Katharine Merry, four-time Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent, and fellow BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire – who has previously spoken about having treatment for breast cancer – were among those to send their support to Bland on social media.

Metastatic breast cancer, also known as secondary breast cancer, occurs when cancer cells spread from the primary cancer in the breast to other parts of the body.

Bland is taking a new trial drug that is designed to make immunotherapy more effective in treating breast cancer. She is one of fewer than 150 people in the world to test it.

Listen to episodes of You, Me and the Big C here.

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