Teresa Whitfield was doing the washing up in her kitchen when she first saw Dame Deborah James on TV.
She stopped to listen to the podcaster tell Lorraine Kelly about her experience of having bowel cancer.
Teresa, now 52, was shocked. Some of the symptoms Deborah was describing were what she had been suffering from for some time, including fatigue and having blood in her stools.
"That's when the penny dropped that it could be something more serious," says Teresa.
Dame Deborah, who died this week, aged just 40, spent the past five years relentlessly raising awareness of the symptoms and raising more than £7million for charity.
Hearing her speak on TV that day in 2018 was a stroke of luck, and Teresa is adamant that it saved her life.
Deborah's openness and optimism gave her the strength to pick up the phone to call her GP.
However, the mother-of-one was not diagnosed with bowel cancer straight away.
At first her GP told her not to worry, saying she simply had piles and gave her some cream. But this did little ease her suffering.
Teresa ended up having to quit her job as an events planner because her symptoms were put down to stress and anxiety, as well as irritable bowel syndrome.
Then in February 2019, she went to the toilet at an event and discovered lots of blood. "I just crumbled," she says.
The next day she called the doctor and demanded a referral to a specialist because she had private medical care.
Within three weeks the consultant diagnosed her with stage 3 bowel cancer and found a 3cm tumour on the outside of her bowel wall.
After months of being told she was too healthy, too young and there was nothing to worry about, the diagnosis actually came as a relief.
"I knew I wasn't going mad," Teresa explains.
A couple of days later she flew from her home in Croydon, South London, to Las Vegas with her sister for a holiday. "We had the most amazing time, we had fun," says Teresa.
"This sense of calm came over me so I knew what I was dealing with and I knew that I was ready to tackle it head on.
"Two days after I came home and I had surgery."
She went on to have six months of chemotherapy to make sure the cancer had gone.
Although she was supported by her husband Will and daughter Bethan, now 14, it was also following Deborah's social media accounts, @bowelbabe, that helped her through the testing time.
"She was a total inspiration, she was superhuman," explains Teresa. "I used to look at her all the time and think, well, she's going through this and she knows that she's got stage 4 bowel cancer, and it's incurable.
"If she can carry on smiling and having fun, raising awareness and dancing through the rain, I am sure I can."
Although Teresa is now cancer-free she still has what Deborah called "scanxiety".
"Every time I get a scan, every time I have blood tests, every time I get a colonoscopy, I get sweaty palms and I get anxiety," she admits.
"I kid you not, if my arm aches I think I've got cancer. Every ache and pain you automatically think the worst.
"It's a mindset you try to shift; my husband has been amazing."
Teresa still has a lot to be grateful for and admits that without Dame Deborah she wouldn't be where she is now.
"I think my prognosis would have been a lot different without her giving me the strength," she says.
"All I can say is a huge thank-you to her and to her family for allowing her to live her short life and raising awareness to people like me to make sure that we can get better.
"She's not here now but she'll always be remembered forever.
"The woman is a legend."
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