LONDON, Feb 1: Ivan Noble, a BBC journalist who wrote a 'tumour diary' on the Internet about his two-year battle with brain cancer, died shortly after his last entry was posted, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
The BBC said the 37-year-old Noble, its online science and technology writer, died on Monday, two days after a moving final diary appeared. That entry was written late last year in anticipation his illness would force him to stop writing. "That time has now come," he conceded.
However, Mr Noble, who was married with two children, also wrote that his goal of fighting cancer and proving it was possible 'not to be crushed by it' had succeeded. Thousands of users of the BBC News website, for which he had worked since 2001, followed regular accounts of his cancer, which last year included a second period of remission, the BBC said.
In November, however, his tumour began to grow again and last month he was admitted to a London hospice, it said. Pete Clifton, editor of BBC News Interactive, said: "Ivan's column and his tremendous spirit have been an inspiration to all of us - to his many readers around the world and to his colleagues at the BBC."
Ivan Noble started writing a column about his cancer not long after he was diagnosed in August 2002. There was a huge response from readers, some of which was published with each entry, the BBC said.
The BBC said many readers sent comments saying that his openness had helped them come to terms with their own cancer or that of relatives, and Ivan Noble established a close affinity with some of them.
The journalist appreciated the support of readers, saying: "It's incredible and humbling that people are interested in me - and it does me an awful lot of good because it takes me out of myself and makes me think about the job that I do." In his final column, he said the feedback people had given him had helped him survive as long as he had. -AFP
