Deborah James talked about life as worth living in the last five years of her life. She co-hosted the award-winning radio show You, Me and the Big C, which was about living with cancer, with the journalist and activist Lauren Mahon.
frankness, honesty and humour were the main selling points of the show, and Deborah, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in December 2016 was one of them.
She asked the Olympian if he could double the amount that came out when he was having sex if he had a testicle removed. "There's always one, and it's always Deb," he said. Bland said that she said what everyone else was thinking. Deborah wore a poo outfit designed for a six-year-old to promote bowel cancer awareness month. She was dancing to the sound of I'm Too Sexy on her account. She wore it many times afterwards.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah, Bland and Mahon for the Observer while they were in the 5 Live studio in Manchester. She was interested in finding solutions to living with cancer as well as surviving it. She praised the people she met at the cancer research laboratories at Imperial College London, saying they were incredibly passionate. Her oncologist applauded her strength of mind and brought her to tears.
Deborah recorded episodes about her treatments and operations. A February 2022 episode was structured around voice notes recorded in the Royal Marsden hospital after a collapse at home left her near death. Listeners were warned about the harrowing details. Her approach was sensitive, helpful and warm even though she was brutally honest about how stretched the health care system was. She said that the episode was put together in hopes of giving others hope.
Deborah was born in London to Heather, a preschool gymnastics coach who has her ownInstagram account as "bowelgran", and Alistair James.
She met her husband, an investment banker, in 2005 and they had two children together. The couple separated but reconciled in 2016 after going through counseling during their divorce proceedings. She was diagnosed with cancer a month later. She wrote in her Sun column that she found cancer to be a wake-up call to her good fortune.
Deborah started her column in June of last year after starting her two social media accounts. She led national research into growth mindsets in schools before she was diagnosed with cancer and wrote a book about her experience. She was honoured at the University of East Anglia and the Royal Marsden School.
She ran charity marathons, organised charity balls, and participated in many fundraising challenges after her cancer treatments. During the Covid-19 epidemic, she continued to promote positive thinking and ways to find happiness, as well as making a radio show with her children, The Good Stuff. The annual #NoButts bowel cancer awareness campaign was launched in April 2021.
She spent time with her family and worked on her final book as her health declined.
Deborah talked about how the lack of community care meant that she was deprived of three of her final weeks at home, but also about how the podcast had given her. Her final words to her audience were, "Check your poo." She spent the last days of her life at her family home in London to make sure it was a happy place for her kids.
A fund in her name to raise money for projects close to her heart was one of Deborah's last wishes. She said that before she died, she wanted to set up a fund that could work on things that gave her life. She hoped the fund would raise a lot of money. More than $6m has been raised.
The Duke of Cambridge visited her at her parents' home the day after she was made a Dame. She linked up with a supermarket, a fashion company and a floral company to raise money for the fund. She posted a picture of herself at Glyndebourne on her social media accounts. Don't be fooled! She said she was knackered. It is worth it to make it to something you didn't think possible. Two fingers up to it all, it's a kind of joke.
Her children and her parents are still alive.
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