This year marks a decade since Dame Deborah James was diagnosed with stage four Bowel Cancer at 35. In the six years that followed, right up until her untimely death aged 40, the journalist and podcaster campaigned tirelessly for awareness.
She was a vital part of Lorraine’s No Butts campaign and a month before her passing she established the Bowelbabe Fund with a goal of reaching £250,000 to go towards cutting-edge research, early detection and life-saving treatment.
Remarkably, last week, the charity hit an incredible milestone of £20 million. Now her mum Heather James, who along with the rest of Deborah’s family has continued her campaigning and legacy, has reflected on the achievement.
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“As a family we’re overwhelmed,” she admitted on This Morning, where she appeared alongside woman&home’s resident GP Dr Amir Khan to discuss the charity’s work, symptoms to look out for and importance of “early detection.”
Heather continued, “We are grateful for all of the Bowelbabe supporters and we will keep going. I can hear Deborah now saying, ‘Come on mum, we can make this £30 million.’”
Sharing how Deborah, whose children Eloise and Hugo were aged 12 and 14 respectively when she died, would feel about the fundraising achievement, Heather added, “She’d be jumping for joy and absolutely thrilled with what’s happened” – noting particularly because it has been achieved in just four years.
Heather also discussed the support the fund has had from the Royal Family. Last week Prince William, who awarded Deborah with a Damehood at her home a month before her death, praised her “amazing legacy” – something Heather says her daughter would be “absolutely over the moon” about.
Dame Deborah James and Prince William as she received her Damehood
(Image credit: Graham Prentice Via Alamy)
While last year King Charles told Heather and her husband Alistair that he was “so sorry I didn’t meet her” as they attended a reception to celebrate those within Cancer Community at Buckingham Palace.
He later echoed Deborah’s departing words as he addressed his own cancer diagnosis, and those who have also received “upsetting news” regarding their health. “Find a life worth enjoying; take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope.”
Concluding, Heather said, “I’m so grateful with what she’s left and happy with the time we had together. Of course I’m sad that I’ve lost my daughter, but what are the memories she’s left me with? And for that I’ll always be grateful.”
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