The family of the late Deborah James want her husband to find love again following her untimely death at the age of 40.
The self-proclaimed Bowelbabe passed away in June last year after raising millions of pounds for Cancer Research UK.
Mum Deborah bravely battled bowel cancer for five years before eventually losing her battle with the disease.
Her final wish was to die at her parent’s home in Woking, Surrey, which she did surrounded by friends and family for the sake of her two children, Hugo, 15, and Eloise, 13.
In a new interview, Deborah’s mum Heather James has revealed she wants her son-in-law Sebastian Bowen to have another chance at love now she’s gone.
“We give Seb our blessing. We want him to move forward when he feels ready,” Heather told the Daily Telegraph.
“Deborah will be a hard act to follow, but he has our blessing. Because Deborah wanted him to move on, we want him to move on.”
When she was still alive, Deborah described her 44-year-old husband, who works as a banker, as a “very eligible bachelor”.
But she revealed she had drawn up a list of women he was banned from hooking up with after she was gone.
The journalist stopped short of revealing which women made it on to her ‘ban list’ – but claimed she would “come and haunt” Seb if he ever went against her wishes.
She said at the time: “I had a list of girls that I was like, right, they’re going to pounce on my husband.
“And I listed off a couple of names that I said I would do my damned hardest to come and haunt him if he hooked up with those people, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.”
She added she had given Seb, who she married in 2008, “strict instructions” to follow when it came to meeting a future partner.
“I want him to move on. He’s handsome man. But I’m like 'Don’t be taken for a ride, don’t marry a bimbo, find someone else who can make you laugh like we did,'” she shared.
On Monday, a new BBC documentary, Bowelbabe: In Her Own Words, will show intimate footage right up to the final weeks of Deborah’s life.
Although she knew her daughter was dying, mum Heather said she thought she would survive “until the minute” the late journalist and campaigner “took her last breath”.
She told the Telegraph: “To me, Deborah was invincible… Until the minute she took her last breath, I still thought she would survive.
“We never thought she would die. If we’d have known she was going to die at the end of five years, we wouldn’t have had such an enjoyable time. She deteriorated in front of our eyes, but I never prepared for the end.”
Heather said her daughter’s “legacy” is “sad” for her as she tries to “continue” raising bowel cancer awareness. She is set to launch this year’s No Butts campaign next week on Lorraine.
After Deborah’s death, the NHS said 170,500 people were referred for checks for suspected lower gastro-intestinal cancers between the months of May and July 2022.
This was up by more than 30,000 compared with the same period in 2021 and nearly 80,000 higher than the same period in 2020.
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