Deborah James said she was ‘absolutely mind blown’ after thousands of people donated more than £1.5 million to a cancer research fund in her honour.
The podcaster, who hosts the BBC show You, Me and the Big C, took to Instagram on Monday to reveal the heartbreaking news that she was receiving palliative care at home, after doctors told her treatment for her terminal cancer was no longer working.
Deborah, 40, set up the Bowelbabe Fund to raise vital cash for life-saving cancer research, and asked her followers to donate the price of a drink to the Just Giving page as her one final wish.
As of Tuesday, donations have topped more than £1.5 million, and the mum-of-two said she felt “utterly loved” after the money flooded in.
During her final episode of the podcast You, Me and the Big C, Deborah said setting up the fund was the “one thing that I wanted to do before I died”.
She was “absolutely mind blown” by the response, and revealed she has no idea “how long I’ve got left”, as she explained her liver had stopped working over the last six months, and doctors had advised her more treatment was “fruitless”.
“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,” Deborah said.
The star, who was diagnosed in 2016 with terminal bowel cancer, said she has gone to her parents home to spend the time she has left with her close family, as it is “where I always wanted to die”.
Deborah said she didn’t want to spend her final days in the London home she shares with husband Sebastien and their children, son Hugo, 14, and daughter Eloise, 12, because she worried it would leave too many “scars”.
In an interview for BBC Breakfast, set to air on Wednesday, Deborah said she was stunned by the outpouring of love from her fans and followers, and only intended on raising £250,000 when she set up the Bowelbabe Fund.
“But in 24 hours to do a million, I'm like absolutely mind blown and I just cannot thank people enough for their generosity. Because it just means so much to me. It makes me feel utterly loved,” she said.
She said it “makes me feel like we're all kind of in it at the end together,” and wanted to save the lives of “other Deborahs” with her fundraising efforts.
