BRITAIN: BBC journalist Ivan Noble, whose online diary about his brain tumour treatment touched hearts around the world, has died at the age of 37.
"I have not been defeated," Noble said in his final entry, before he succumbed to the malignant tumour he was first diagnosed with in August 2002. "The regular feedback from dozens and dozens of people every time I have written has been wonderful... I know that it has kept me going much longer than I would have without it."
Thousands signed on to the BBC news website to read the science and technology writer's searingly-honest accounts of how he grappled with the tumour. Cancer researchers hailed Noble's efforts.
"The hopes, fears, honesty and courage he shared through his regular diary entries were moving and truly inspirational," said Prof Alex Markham, Cancer Research UK chief executive.
Noble, who had three brain operations, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, wrote his final column late last year in anticipation of the day he would be too ill to write. In November, his tumour began to grow again and last month he was admitted to a London hospice. He died on Monday, leaving a wife and two children, the BBC said.
Noble's openness about his cancer echoed the efforts of fellow British journalist and broadcaster John Diamond, who chronicled his battle with throat cancer in a weekly newspaper column. He died in 2001, after a four-year fight.
The internet gave Noble's musings global reach and readers around the world offered their encouragement.
"You are not defeated but won a great victory. Your light will shine on," said Egyptian Shirina Ibrahim.
The diary sparked an agonised response from Italian Roberto Ricci, who wrote: "Ivan, do you really have to go? OK, I understand. No I don't. Please don't go."
Noble's last words touched a chord: "What I wanted to do with this column was to try and prove that it was possible to survive and beat cancer and not be crushed by it. Even though I have to take my leave now, I feel like I managed it."
He concluded: "If two or three people stop smoking as a result of anything I have ever written, then the one of them who would have got cancer will live and all my scribblings will have been worthwhile." - (Reuters)
Ivan Noble's diary can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/