“Today is the 4th anniversary of Deborah’s death and there are still many moments when it is so difficult to believe she is no longer with us.” Heather and Alistair James posted those words on Instagram on Saturday, remembering their daughter, Dame Deborah James.
The message went on. “Her immense enthusiasm and enjoyment of life will never be forgotten,” they wrote, “but there are still so many times when I look up expecting that beautiful smile to appear round the corner full of her latest challenge and adventures for the family.” They said she would have been “so proud and honoured by what has been achieved in her name”. A photo of their smiling daughter went up with the post.
A campaign built online
Deborah James was a deputy head teacher when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016, at 35. She went public as Bowelbabe, posting videos of herself dancing through chemotherapy and talking about “rebellious hope”. She also hosted the podcast You, Me And The Big C.
She launched the Bowelbabe Fund in her final weeks. It passed £1 million in less than 24 hours and has since raised £21 million. The royals and health organisations praised it. Her parents wrote that the family had celebrated £20m being raised in the last few months.
The final message
She died on June 28, 2022, aged 40, after months of end of life care at her parents’ house in Surrey. Her family was with her. Her Instagram account announced the death with a message from her: “Find a life worth enjoying; take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope. And finally, check your poo – it could just save your life.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, wrote on X that she was “an inspirational and unfalteringly brave woman whose legacy will live on”. Boris Johnson said: “The awareness she brought to bowel cancer and the research her campaigning has funded will be her enduring legacy. Because of her, many many lives will be saved.”
Teresa Whitfield was watching breakfast TV when she heard James describe her symptoms. She went to her GP straight away. “Without her campaigning I wouldn’t have kept going back to me GP,” Whitfield said at the time. “I’m now cancer free. She did save my life.”
A month before she died, James recorded her last podcast and signed off in tears. “All I want now is more time and more life,” she said. “And check your poo. Come on. I can’t leave on any other words.”
