This week: a BBC presenter who blogged about her cancer, the US Navy's first female admiral, and the founder of Afghanistan's Haqqani network

THE BBC news presenter Rachael Bland, who has died of cancer aged 40, was known for documenting her diagnosis and treatment on her blog Big C Little Me, which had the tag line "putting the can in cancer". The BBC Radio 5 Live newsreader revealed on social media recently that she had only days to live.

Bland was diagnosed with primary triple-negative breast cancer in November 2016. She was married to husband Steve for four years. The couple had a two-year-old son Freddie and would have celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary on September 14.

In a tweet posted on Monday, the broadcaster wrote: "I'm told I've only got days. It's very surreal."

In an early episode of her podcast she told how she had discovered she had cancer after breastfeeding Freddie.

She said: "I had pain first. I had this weird soreness. It was kind of inside my armpit. It went away. It was just around the time I was breastfeeding.

"But because of that I was having a little bit of a feel. When I found it, I was like: 'How did I miss this?' It was the size of a walnut."

Originally from the Cardiff area, Bland had joined the BBC in 2001, and her career started at Radio Wiltshire, where she worked as a journalist and newsreader.

She later joined BBC Radio 5 Live where she became a feature on Richard Bacon's late-night show and ended up staying on. She also began presenting on BBC News.

In 2011 when the BBC relocated to Salford, Bland's was the first voice heard on Radio 5 Live's first broadcast from the new location and studios.

REAR Admiral Alene Duerk, who has died aged 98, was the US Navy’s first female admiral, who became a trailblazer as the Navy opened up more opportunities for women.

Duerk was born in Definance, Ohio, in 1920. After graduating from nursing school at Toledo Hospital in 1941, she entered the U.S. Naval Reserve and was appointed an ensign in the Nurse Corps. During the Second World War, she worked on a hospital ship off the Marshall Islands in the Pacific and later treated Allied troops who had been prisoners of war.

“The time I was aboard the hospital ship and we took the prisoners of war, that was something I will never forget,” Duerk told the Library of Congress’ Veteran’s History Project. “That was the most exciting experience of my whole career.”

With the war ended, Duerk was released from active service in 1946 while she was stationed at Naval Hospital Great Lakes. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Western Reserve University in Cleveland and then returned to active duty in 1951 as a nursing instructor at Naval Hospital Corps School in Portsmouth, Va. Over the decades, she would serve in hospitals in Chicago, San Diego, Washington, and Yokosuka, Japan.

She was appointed director of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1970. In her new role, she expanded the Navy’s areas of nursing into paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, ambulatory care, and anaesthesia.

President Nixon approved her selection as the first female rear admiral in 1972. She retired three years later but remained an advocate for Navy nursing for decades more.

JALALUDDIN Haqqani, who has died aged 71, was the founder of Afghanistan's much-feared Haqqani network.

The elderly founder of the outlawed Afghanistan-based organisation, once hailed as a freedom fighter by US President Ronald Reagan, had been paralysed for the past 10 years.

Because of his illness, Mr Haqqani's network has been led by his son Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is also deputy head of the Taliban.

Considered the most formidable of the Taliban's fighting forces, the Haqqani network has been linked to some of the more audacious attacks in Afghanistan.

The elder Haqqani joined the Taliban when they overran Kabul in September 1996, expelling feuding mujahedeen groups, whose battles left the capital in ruins.

Since then, the network has been among the fiercest opponents fighting US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.

The elder Haqqani's death is not expected to impact on the network's military might or strategy.

Mr Haqqani was among the Afghan mujahedeen, or holy warriors, the United States backed in the 1980s to fight the former Soviet Union's invading army, sent to Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up the pro-Moscow government.

After 10 years, Moscow negotiated an exit from Afghanistan in an agreement that eventually led to the collapse of Kabul's communist government and a takeover by the mujahedeen.

In 2012, the United States declared the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation. Mr Haqqani had not been heard from in several years and reports of his death were widespread in 2015.