‘Bowelbabe saved my life’: Cancer survivors pay tribute to Dame Deborah James
Cancer survivors have told how Dame Deborah James helped save their lives after she inspired them to check their own symptoms.
The writer and podcaster died on Tuesday aged 40 following a five-year battle with bowel cancer. She spent years campaigning for increased awareness of the disease and raised millions of pounds for cancer charities.
On Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge led a series of poignant tributes as donations through her Bowelbabe Fund surged to £7 million. BBC One will broadcast a special documentary celebrating Dame Deborah’s life on Thursday.
Among a wave of tributes from politicians, celebrities and medical professionals, multiple cancer survivors said that they owed their lives to Dame Deborah while charities added she saved “countless lives”.
Dame Deborah co-hosted the You, Me And The Big C podcast with Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland. She eventually became known as Bowelbabe via her social media handle.
‘She triggered something in my mind’
Teresa Whitfield, who was diagnosed with stage-three bowel cancer, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that her life was saved after watching Dame Deborah talk about symptoms.
“I was watching TV one morning, about Oct 2018, Dame Deborah was talking very openly and frankly about the symptoms… of bowel cancer,” she recalled.
“I thought some of these symptoms, not all of them but some of them, I was experiencing. She triggered something in my mind that said ‘Maybe I should be going to see the doctor about my symptoms’.”
Margaret Murtagh, 41, from London, said she only sought cancer treatment after she followed the Bowelbabe Instagram account and listened to the You, Me and the Big C podcast.
“It struck me really, really, really clearly,” she said. “We were both of a similar age, we both had two kids, both lived in London, we were both runners, we were both healthy, we didn’t look like we could have cancer,” she told GB News.
“I heard her story and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, if she can have cancer, then so can I’. That’s when I started taking my symptoms really seriously and I rang my GP the next day.
“I was 38 when I was diagnosed, Deborah was 35. She made you think, ‘Goodness, don’t just rest on your laurels and think I’m a runner, I eat loads of veg, I don’t eat processed meat’.”
George Alagiah, the BBC newscaster who was diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer in 2014, said that Dame Deborah was “a beacon, lighting the way for us all of us living with cancer”.
Adele Roberts, another BBC presenter who was being treated for bowel cancer but announced this week she is “free of cancer”, wrote on Instagram:
Dame Deborah was made a dame last month with the Duke visiting her in person at her home to bestow the honour.
On Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess paid tribute to her as an “inspirational and unfalteringly brave woman whose legacy will live on”.
They added: “We are so sad to hear the heartbreaking news about Dame Deborah. Our thoughts are with her children, her family and her loved ones.”
In a poignant message to her one million Instagram followers, Dame Deborah shared a poignant final message: “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.”
Speaking during a visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital to announce his plan for digital health and social care, Sajid Javid said that Dame Deborah’s legacy will be the “many, probably millions, of lives that she will save” through her campaigning work on bowel cancer awareness.
The Health Secretary added: “I was very saddened – I think, like the whole nation – about the news about Dame Deborah. My thoughts are immediately with her family and friends.
“But she has been an inspiration to the entire country. I think everyone has heard of her because of her fantastic work to raise awareness of what she called the C-word. I think her legacy will be the many, probably millions, of lives that she will save.”
Genevieve Edwards, the chief executive of Bowel Cancer UK, said that Dame Deborah had left a “tremendous legacy”.
“She turned her bowel cancer diagnosis into an incredible force for good and through her tireless campaigning to raise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms, will have saved countless lives.
“Deborah brought warmth, energy, and honesty to everything she did. Even during her most difficult times living with bowel cancer, she never stopped helping others.”
Deborah James: The Last Dance is now available on the BBC iPlayer and will be broadcast on BBC One on Thursday at 8.30pm
