In a final message to her fans, Dame Deborah James urged them to “find a life worth enjoying, take risks, have no regrets and always check your poo.”
Her family announced this evening that the podcaster died after a five-year battle with bowel cancer.
Sharing the news to Instagram, her loved ones wrote: ‘We are deeply saddened to announce the death of Dame Deborah James; the most amazing wife, daughter, sister, mummy. Deborah passed away peacefully today, surrounded by her family.’
The 40-year-old presenter was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in December 2016 and was given palliative care at her parents’ home in Woking, Surrey, after being told she might not live beyond five years – a milestone she reached in the autumn of 2021.
She spent her time raising awareness about the disease, leaving “no stone unturned” in her search for a “magic medicine miracle,” even designing an InTheStyle clothing collection emblazoned with the words “rebellious hope” after revealing the slogan “got her through the last five years.”
Her family shared the inspirational podcaster’s final words in an emotional statement announcing her death.
She told fans: ‘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.’
Deborah, who has two children with her husband Sebastien, Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, was labeled ‘inspirational’ by fans after candidly sharing her struggles on social media and on Radio 5 Live’s You, Me, and the Big C, of which she was one of three presenters.
On May 9, the mother-of-two revealed to her 470,000 Instagram followers that she was being moved into hospice-at-home care while’surrounded by family,’ because’my body simply isn’t playing ball.’
While she stated at the time that no one knew how long she would live, she recently revealed that when she was released from the hospital last month, she was given only a few days.
Deborah also established the Bowelbabe Fund for cancer research, which has raised over £6.5 million.
The Duke of Cambridge made her a dame at her family home, with William praising her for “going above and beyond to make a very special memory.”
He later called her ‘incredible’ telling staff at the Royal Marsden who had treated her: ‘She is a brave and inspirational woman.’
Last week, the star broke her social media silence to reveal that toilet paper brand Andrex will begin listing bowel cancer symptoms on its packaging.
Deborah advocated for supermarkets to print bowel cancer symptoms on toilet paper so that people were more aware of the warning signs to look for in order to catch it early.
Andrex shared the news on social media earlier today, writing, ‘Thank you for the brilliant work you are doing to raise awareness of bowel cancer.’
Dame Deborah shared the post, adding a caption saying: ’28 million packs! Coming soon! @andrexuk. Puppy we are embracing the poo.’
The company collaborated with Bowel Cancer UK to put the information on packaging and hopes to have the symptoms on all of their packaging within the next year after donating £65,000 to the charity.
Additionally, the packs will include a QR code that will direct people to the Bowel Cancer UK website, where they can find more information.
Deborah also appeared in an episode of Embarrassing Bodies earlier this year, where she revealed she had a ‘gut instinct that something wasn’t right’ before being diagnosed with bowel cancer.
During her final TV appearance on E4’s Embarrassing Bodies on June 16, Deborah explained: ‘I started going to the poo – we need to say that – eight times a day. And I used to be a once-a-day kind of girl.
‘Then I started getting really tired and I remember drinking loads of cups of coffee just to try and keep myself awake. Then I started losing loads of weight and I started having blood in my poo.’
Deborah attributed her ‘gut instinct that something wasn’t right’ to the combination of these changes.
Deborah received a “late” diagnosis of bowel cancer in 2016. She had frequently stated that she was the last person doctors expected to contract the disease because she was a vegetarian runner.
Deborah became known as the ‘Bowel Babe’ after sharing her experiences with the illness on social media, and in 2018, she joined Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland to present the award-winning podcast You, Me, and the Big C on Radio 5 Live.
Bland died of breast cancer on September 5, that year; her husband, Steve Bland, now co-hosts the show.
Deborah had had a difficult year, having previously defied the odds by running 5K races and participating in triathlons.
She did, however, tell Lorraine Kelly earlier this year that she spent ‘80%’ of it in the hospital receiving treatment after contracting sepsis and suffering a traumatic varicose vein bleed.
As she returned home from the hospital after three weeks, she said the ‘trauma’ of nearly dying from the bleed was still ‘very raw and real.’
Speaking on her You, Me and the Big C podcast with co-host Steve Bland, Deborah said: ‘I was in a state, an absolute state. I was flummoxed. I can’t describe it. I just survived something I never thought… I thought that was it. I thought I was a goner.
‘How do you process that I said my goodbyes, I thought that was it, I thought that was the end of my life, how do you stop reliving that trauma? I did not know what to do with myself.
‘And it’s amazing how you suddenly go back to the things you realise you can do, which is to chat into a microphone or write – whatever your normal coping mechanism are even in a crisis.
‘I’m always somebody that has to have a bit of a purpose so I was like: ‘If I’m going through this I need each and every day to find a purpose’. Obviously the purpose is to live but it also gave me a structure during the day. It gave me something to do (in hospital).
‘I thought I feel so awful, not just physically, but mentally. I thought I knew what rock bottom was. I thought I knew what tough was and I didn’t. I cracked – there’s no embarrassment in saying that. I hit a new low that I never knew existed.’