Deborah James, the beloved and irrepressible co-host of BBC Podcast You, Me and the Big C who has been living with incurable bowel cancer, has said goodbye to followers on social media.
'The message I never wanted to write,' James, known as ‘Bowel Babe’, posted to her 471k followers on Instagram last night. 'We have tried everything, but my body simply isn’t playing ball. My active care has stopped and I am now moved to hospice at home care, with my incredible family all around me and the focus is on making sure I’m not in pain and spending time with them.'
The former deputy head teacher, 40, has been living with stage four bowel cancer since her diagnosis in 2016. She began writing a blog, Bowelbabe, about her experience of the disease, then wrote the bestselling book, F**k You Cancer, taking on a starring role on Radio 5 Live’s wildly popular You, Me and the Big C, a myth- and taboo-busting talk show on which three women — Deborah James, Lauren Mahon and the late Rachael Bland — laughed and cried through hard truths about what it’s like to have cancer.
James, an award-winning podcast host and The Sun’s cancer columnist, has two children, Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, with her husband Sebastien. She is an ingenious campaigner, turning up to record in what she calls her 'poo suit': a poo-emoji fancy dress outfit sized for a six-year-old with which she raises awareness of bowel cancer symptoms.
She had been told that she would not live longer than five years, but beat that prediction in 2021.
'In over 5 years of writing about how I thought it would be my final Christmas, how I wouldn’t see my 40th birthday nor see my kids go to secondary school - I never envisaged writing the one where I would actually say goodbye,' she said. 'I think it’s been the rebellious hope in me.'
Typically, the tireless James announced in her post last night that she was setting up the Bowelbabe Fund, and shared links to charities including Cancer Research UK, Bowel Cancer UK and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. Her JustGiving page had raised £2m by Wednesday.
'Before I died, the one thing I wanted to do was set up a fund that can continue working on some of things that gave me life," she told BBC Breakfast this morning. "Such as the innovative drug studies. Because if it wasn't for some of the drugs that I was put on early that have me two years of extra life, then that could be someone else's life."
Through tears, she said the response makes her feel "utterly loved", like "we're all in it at the end together, and we all want to say: You know what? Screw you cancer. You know, we can do better for people."
In her last podcast interview, said her liver had stopped working over the past six months and doctors had advised that more treatment was 'fruitless' because her 'body does not want to play ball'.
'I can't even walk anymore, that's what's really scary about it, I've gone from someone who used to run 5km [3miles] a day to someone who needs her husband to pick her up to walk a step.'
'Our hearts are shattered into thousands of pieces. And also completely bursting with pride,' her co-host Lauren Mahon wrote on her own account, noting that James had 'smashed' her £250,000 fundraising target. 'And please do what my work wife has asked of you … buy her an alcoholic bev at Bowelbabe.org.'
James added: 'My whole family are around me and we will dance through this together, sunbathing and laughing (I’ll cry!!) at every possible moment!,' adding that, yes, she would like a wine or three.
You can donate to the fundraiser at Bowelbabe.org — and you can raise a glass to her wherever you are.