Wednesday 29 June 2022 10:45 PM Health Guru, who knew Dame Deborah James, urges readers to safeguard their ... trends now
As last requests go, it was certainly an unusual one. In a moving final message shared on Instagram by her family, Dame Deborah James urged us all to: ‘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.
It was typical Debs. Because while her loss is nothing short of devastating, she also leaves behind an incredible legacy.
Since she and I first met three years ago, working on a campaign about the importance of fibre for gut health — just one of the many things she did to raise the profile of bowel cancer since her diagnosis in 2016 — I’ve been in awe of her.
Pictured: Davina McCall (left) , Dame Deborah James (middle) and Megan Rossi (right)
Dame Deborah James urged her fans to 'find a life worth enjoying, take risks, have no regrets and always check your poo' in a final message to her army of supporters
The presenter, 40, was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in December 2016 and received palliative care at her parents' home in Woking, Surrey after being told she may not live beyond five years - a milestone that passed in the autumn of 2021
Mother-of-four Tracey O’Keefe, from Glasgow, heard Deborah talking about her symptoms on TV in 2018.
‘I looked at her and thought she didn’t tick all the boxes of someone who would have cancer. And that really hit home because I thought: “I have all those symptoms, too.” ’
Tracey had already been to her GP, but had been told she most likely had internal piles. ‘I was embarrassed,’ she admits. ‘I went in saying: “Sorry, it’s me again, but I’ve still got this. I’ve still got a wee bit of blood, I’m still pooing really strangely.” It was a change in bowel habits . . . all the classic symptoms. I had the weight loss as well.’
After hearing Deborah speak, Tracey insisted on a referral to see a specialist. Delays meant she had to pay to see a doctor privately, and she was diagnosed with a 4 cm tumour.
In a Facebook post yesterday, she wrote: ‘My diagnosis was genuinely down to watching this amazing woman talking about her symptoms . . . I’m forever grateful to the fabulous Deborah.’
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Not many people could achieve what Debs did, especially when struggling with such serious illness, but I am so thankful that she did.
Through her tireless work, she brought bowel cancer to the fore. She de-stigmatised a disease that kills thousands in the UK every year, often because of late diagnosis — a result of embarrassment when it comes to talking about our toilet issues. She also raised huge sums of money that will go towards research into preventing, diagnosing and curing the disease.
Her impact can be seen directly in the fact that in May, straight after Debs launched her Bowelbabe fund for Cancer Research UK as she announced that she was moving to palliative care at home, online searches for ‘bowel cancer’ rose by 280 per cent.
Three times more people than usual visited Cancer Research UK’s web pages on bowel cancer — and, as people rushed to get more information, they also rushed to donate: her fund has raised more than £7 million, and still rising.
Up until the end, and long past it, this inspirational woman will be making a difference. Just last week it was announced that Andrex, Tesco and many others are to list bowel cancer symptoms on their packs of loo roll, a campaign driven by Debs.
The fact is that bowel cancer does not discriminate in who it attacks — young, old, male, female, healthy, unhealthy.
Also called colorectal cancer, it’s the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with 43,000 people diagnosed a year.
In most cases, if diagnosed early, it’s curable. The heart-breaking thing is that it’s often diagnosed too late, which is why of all cancers, it is the second biggest killer, claiming more than 16,500 people in the UK a year.
So please, heed Debs’s call to follow your gut instinct and never ignore symptoms, no matter how squeamish you feel. I promise your doctor has seen and heard worse.
Debs realised something wasn’t right when she started pooing eight times a day, having always been a ‘once a day’ kind of girl.
On May 9, the mother-of-two shared a heartbreaking 'goodbye' message to her 470,000 Instagram followers, revealing she was being moved into hospice-at-home care, while 'surrounded by family'
Deborah (pictured with her children), parent to Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, with her husband Sebastien, was constantly labelled 'inspirational' by fans after candidly sharing her struggles on social media, as well as on Radio 5 Live's You, Me and the Big C, of which she was one of three presenters
Deborah - who has two children Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, with her husband Sebastien - was constantly labelled 'inspirational' by fans after candidly sharing her struggles on social media
Thanks to Deborah, Teresa Whitfield was diagnosed with cancer in March 2019, aged 49.
‘I remember having an upset stomach and blood in my poo on holiday
