BBC presenter Rachael Bland reveals breast cancer is terminal as she says only hope is to become a 'lab rat'

A BBC presenter has revealed her breast cancer is now terminal and that she will now become a "lab rat" in an attempt to help others diagnosed with the same disease. 

Rachael Bland, 40, has been blogging about the illness and in her latest post told how she was out with her son when the call came through. 

The BBC 5live newsreader and host was diagnosed in November 2016 and has endured months of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. 

But the results from a lymph node operation in February did not have the desired effect, and she told on Sunday how she was informed her cancer was now incurable. 

Writing in her blog Big C Little Me, she said: "I was out at the ice cream farm with Freddie and some of his little pals. 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 [her husband] Steve’s heart with the news that my cancer was now metastatic and therefore incurable."

Mrs Bland was told her best chance to prolong her life was with a trial drug with the Christie Clinical Trials Unit - referred to as a "novel agent" by her surgeon. 

"So now I have turned lab rat," she said. "I feel an odd sense of pride that I am one of fewer than 150 people worldwide who will test it.

"If it doesn’t help me then I hope the data I provide will at some point in the future help others in the same position."

The journalist, who also hosts a podcast called You, Me and the Big C, was inundated with messages of support from BBC colleagues Steven Nolan, Eleanor Oldroyd, Sonja McLaughlan, Anna Foster, Victoria Derbyshire and Chris Mason.

Former athletes Katharine Merry and Matthew Pinsent also sent their well-wishes, with the Olympic rower tweeting: "Sending you thoughts and best wishes. Love the blog and all you're doing around this."