Heather James detailed the heart-warming moment that Prince William arrived to give her daughter Deborah her prestigious Damehood just over a year ago.
Speaking on Loose Women, Thursday, Heather explained that the family only found out the day before that the Prince of Wales would be visiting Deborah's house to meet her and enjoy afternoon tea with her nearest and dearest.
The 65-year-old said: "We thought, 'What will be, will be.' We threw blankets over the tired sofas and he walked in, and Deborah and I thought, 'How do you address him?' That was taken away from us because it was, 'Hello, I'm William' and it was just like having another son, son-in-law with us."
Read more: Deborah James' heartbreaking final letter with wise advice to children
The Mirror reports that William created an incredibly special connection with the mother and daughter duo, sharing a message of support to Lorraine Kelly's No Butts campaign. In which, he said: "Hi Lorraine, I just want to say a big thank you to you and your team for all you’re doing to raise awareness around bowel cancer through your No Butts campaign.
“As you know I got to meet Dame Deborah, so I know how important this was to her. 46,000 people each year get diagnosed with bowel cancer and yet many of us don’t know the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, particularly in us men. So if you’re watching this, please take a second to listen and learn about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, it could save your life.”
ITV's Lorraine is currently running the campaign for a third year running, with the presenter herself previously running the initiative alongside the late Deborah - who sadly died in June last year following a battle with stage four bowel cancer.
Meanwhile, Heather explained that her late daughter endeavoured to do one last piece of campaigning before her passing, adding: "She was adamant that she wanted the bowel cancer the symptoms printed on [toilet roll] wrappers because everybody buys toilet roll and it was a campaign close to her heart that she wanted to see before she died.
"It took a bit longer to get the campaign going and two days before she died she knew that Tesco was going to do it and she saw how it was going to be."
She went on: "I could see that was the last thing she had to achieve and then she started to slowly sort of go in my eyes. She was still with us, she was still there, but the peace that she had finally got those toilet rolls was amazing."
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