Deborah James praises Rachael Bland for being ‘upbeat’ despite cancer battle

Deborah James has praised her friend Rachael Bland for remaining "one of the healthiest people I know" right up until her tragic death.

Rachael, who died on September 5 at age 40, hosted the podcast alongside Deborah and Lauren Mahon, both of whom have cancer as well.

Deborah, 35, said how much she missed her co-host but believes her legacy will speak for itself over time.

She told ITV’s Lorraine Kelly: "I miss her so much, even just looking at those photographs it breaks my heart actually.

"But what we did together was, we put cancer on prime time, and I’m so proud to have done that with her and her legacy and what we started, we’re going to carry on with it.

"It really annoys me, that idea that you have to fight you cancer and Rachael is prime example of this.

"She was the most positive, upbeat and healthy person I can think of, yet she died because of cancer."

Deborah, who has stage four cancer which spread from her bowel to her lungs, is undergoing a great deal of treatment, including cyber knife treatment, but she said the language around it should be of "living with cancer" rather than talking of the fight.

Continuing to talk about Rachael, she said: "As Rachael said, she was taking me onwards with my journey, she basically said, ‘You wipe your tears and you get on with it…’

"You have to laugh otherwise you’ll have to cry and you make the most of the hand you’ve been dealt."

Deborah, who has written a book, said she did not expect to see it published as she wrote it in one of her "darkest moments" in chemotherapy, and even asked her children to write something in it as well.

She added: "I wrote this not thinking I’d be alive to see it published… I woke up from an operation to find an email suggesting I go for a meeting about writing a book.

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"And I thought, ‘No that’s something I’m going to do it in the future, but I woke up with a collapsed lung and realised there might not be a future.

"I started writing in hospital and wrote the whole book nine months ago, when I was in the dark depths of chemotherapy so it’s really emotional to see that."

Rachael also wrote of her experiences, chronicling her cancer journey in a blog.

Lorraine airs weekdays at 8.30am on ITV.

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