Dame Deborah James was ‘invincible’ until the minute she took ‘last breath’, says mother

James was diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer in 2016 and campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of the symptoms

The mother of Dame Deborah James has said that “until the minute” the late campaigner “took her last breath” she thought her daughter would survive.

James died aged 40 last June, after she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2016.

She started blogging her cancer journey under her internet moniker Bowelbabe and raised millions of pounds for Cancer Research UK. She was credited with raising awareness of bowel cancer by the NHS.

Heather James, Deborah’s mother, told The Daily Telegraph on Saturday (15 April) that she thought her daughter was “invincible” right up until the day she died.

She said: “To me, Deborah was invincible... Until the minute she took her last breath, I still thought she would survive.

“We never thought she would die. If we’d have known she was going to die at the end of five years, we wouldn’t have had such an enjoyable time.”

Heather added: “She deteriorated in front of our eyes, but I never prepared for the end.”

James’s work as a cancer campaigner will be documented in the new BBC Two film Dame Deborah James: BowelBabe in Her Own Words, which will air on Monday night (17 April).

Dame Deborah James authored two books about living with terminal illness (PA Media)

She was known as a co-host on the You, Me And The Big C BBC podcast alongside Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland and also started the Bowelbabe fund, which has subsequently raised more than £11.3m for cancer research.

Heather said her daughter’s “legacy” is “sad” for her as she tries to continue raising bowel cancer awareness.

After the mother-of-two’s death, the NHS said 170,500 people were referred for checks for suspected lower gastro-intestinal cancers between the months of May and July 2022.

Dame Deborah’s widower, Sebastien Bowen, has been given the family’s “blessing” to find a new partner when he “feels ready”, Heather also said.

She added: “Deborah would be a hard act to follow but he has our blessing because Deborah wanted him to move on, we want him to move on.”

Also on Monday, Heather will join ITV’s Lorraine for the launch of the No Butts campaign.

In the film, Deborah is heard in a voiceover saying that she had a “list of girls” that she knew would “pounce” on her husband after her death.

Describing her husband as a “very eligible bachelor”, she said: “I had a list of girls that I was like, right, they’re going to pounce on my husband.”

“And so I listed off a couple of names that I said I would do my damned hardest to come and haunt him if he hooked up with those people, which I thought was absolutely hilarious,” she joked.

James and Bowen, 44, share two children, Hugo, 15, and Eloise, 13. They wed in July 2008.

James described her bowel cancer as “the glam cancer”, adding: “There’s nothing pink about my cancer, it’s just brown. I was diagnosed after six months of a change of bowel habits, basically where I was pooing blood.

“I’m going to be very frank, because I think one of the biggest problems is that people are not frank enough about the symptoms that led to their diagnosis, and then as a result it holds up their diagnosis.”

Dame Deborah James: BowelBabe in Her Own Words will be on BBC Two at 9pm on Monday 17 April and available on BBC iPlayer.