We could see which way it was going on the Friday before she died, so my sister went to the school to get a jumper,” says Steve. Before her death, Steve says he and Rachael had “very open conversations” about what she wanted for his future. She died two days later at the age of 40 at her home in Knutsford, Cheshire surrounded by her family. Now aged five, he started in reception in September last year, although Rachael got to see him in his pre-school jumper just before her death.

Nearly five years after his late wife Rachael Bland started the award-winning podcast You, Me and the Big C following her breast cancer diagnosis, Steve Bland has recorded one of its final episodes, saying it is possible to “be happy again and full of life again”. That's what I've been told, his grief will come and go and it's probably when he's four, five or six we will start to see more how it's affected him. Anyone who was a regular listener would definitely have been terribly sad to hear of it, and her friends and family would be as distraught as they obviously are. Steve has been balancing training for the marathon with managing his grief and adjusting to life without Rachael. It was relatively late in life that your daddy and I crossed paths – we both agreed that we wished we’d met sooner and spent more of our formative years together, but sometimes you have to wait for the best things in life.And the book is carrying on the work Rachael started - her other legacy, besides Freddie, her podcast and the way it is helping people with cancer themselves, their friends and families and indeed those treating it. Most of all, it is an enduring keepsake for Freddie and a lifetime reminder of his amazing mummy’s unconditional love.

While reading this book at times I felt really, really sad knowing that it wasn't going to have the happy ending that The Blands and The Hodges and all of their family and friends deserved so much. something I’d been reluctant to put a number on before – and the answer came back "Days …possibly weeks". He also praised Damien Lewis and Helen McCrory for going public with a conversation they'd had about dating after loss before Helen's death from cancer aged 52 on April 16th. The thought that you have to grow up without me there to cuddle you when you’re sick, had a bad dream, or just want your mummy is too much to bear. I was hooked on eating Sainsbury's cooking Chorizo at 2am: BRYONY GORDON was addicted to drugs and alcohol before finally managing to get herself sober.He said: “I might be wrong but I just feel that if Rachael had known how hard it was going to be, she might have wanted to go into a hospice or something else.