Dear Rachael, you’ve helped us to face our fears
Three cheers for Rachael Bland, the 40-year-old BBC Radio 5 Live journalist and mother of one who died this week from breast cancer. I know this reaction might seem a little more appropriate for someone hosting a birthday party than a woman who will shortly have a funeral, but she seemed so joyous that I can’t help picturing balloons when I think of her.
Her last Twitter post was typically lacking in self-pity. “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… Au revoir my friends.”
It’s hard to believe that there was once a time when nobody discussed the C word – least of all the doctors – and people with the disease were left to suffer in silence.
Now we have blogs and podcasts thanks to people such as Rachael,
and a cruel disease does not have to seem quite so frightening, or lonely. A friend was telling me this week about the last days she spent with her mother, who was dying of cancer. In private, they laughed and had fun, and when sad-looking visitors arrived they put on what she described as their “terminal illness faces”, so as not to upset the usual narrative. “But I actually really enjoyed Mum’s final days, as I know she did,” reported my friend. “Death is inevitable, and yet it doesn’t have to equal misery.”
One of Rachael’s last tweets said that “even in death there is still laughter to be had”. What a comfort that is.
So yes, three cheers to Rachael Bland, and to everyone else coming together to challenge the myths surrounding cancer.