The mother of Dame Deborah James said “until the minute” the late campaigner “took her last breath” she thought her daughter would survive. By the time Dame Deborah died aged 40 last June, she had raised millions of pounds for Cancer Research UK and was credited with raising awareness of bowel cancer by the NHS.
On Monday, a new BBC documentary, Bowelbabe: In Her Own Words, will show intimate footage right up to the final weeks of her life. Heather James told Saturday’s The Daily 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.”
