A new Dame Deborah James fundraiser on Instagram tonight (Wednesday, June 29) is asking people to 'buy a drink for Debs'. The bowel cancer campaigner had already raised £6.9 million before her death on Tuesday at the age of 40.
The mum-of-two launched multiple fundraising efforts in May as she moved to her parents' house on hospice care. These included a charity 'rebellious hope' T-shirt, which noted Dame Deborah's own attitude to living with Stage 4 bowel cancer since 2016.
On Wednesday night, the BowelBabeFund account on Instagram posted an 'Add Yours'. This is a trend on the social network which involves sharing a photo to your Instagram Story that matches a caption.
Posters had already started sharing images of a tipple they were having in memory of the podcaster. BowelBabeFund also has a link to the JustGiving page Dame Deborah set up before her death.
It currently stands at £6,992,631. Her death was confirmed in a post from her Instagram account, BowelBabe.
Charities have noted a surge in people enquiring about bowel cancer information, according to Sky News. Marks & Spencer will be adding bowel cancer symptoms to their toilet paper packing due to the podcaster's campaigning efforts.
Deborah began working as a columnist for The Sun newspaper detailing her cancer journey and launched the praised Radio 5 podcast You, Me and the Big C in 2018, releasing a book later that same year. She is survived by two children, Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, and her husband Sebastian Bowen.
BBC One is screening a special programme in tribute to Dame Deborah, The Last Dance, on Thursday (June 30) at 8.30pm
