Dame Deborah James died yesterday - but her legacy will live on forever.
Today, Good Morning Britain hosts Adil Ray and Susanna Reid paid tribute to the campaigner after she lost her life to bowel cancer at just 40 years old. The mum-of-two was diagnosed with the devastating disease in 2016 and subsequently kept her nearly one million Instagram followers up to date with her treatments.
In her final weeks, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised millions of pounds for research and was made a dame for her “tireless” work improving awareness of the disease. The ITV show highlighted all of former deputy headteacher's achievements before her death as they paid a touching tribute to her, while pinpointing the signs to look out for with bowel cancer.
READ MORE: Dame Deborah James dies aged 40 after cancer battle
Chief executor of Bowel Cancer UK, Genevieve Edwards, appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about the difference that Dame Deborah made. She said: "She has affected thousands of people's lives. Since the day of her diagnosis over five years ago now she's turned that into this incredible force for good.
"She's never stopped campaigning. Even when she was going through really difficult personal times, she never stopped supporting and helping others and she leaves this incredible legacy behind her."
Genevieve said Deborah talking so openly about her own diagnosis helped others to discuss their symptoms more easily. She said: "Bowel cancer is something that people do struggle talking about and they do worry about it and find it a bit embarrassing.
"She stripped all of that away and did it with such humour, warmth and energy. She will be so greatly missed."
Adil asked what symptoms of bowel cancer people should be on the lookout for. Genevieve replied: "I'm so glad you asked me that. There are just a few red flag symptoms for bowel cancer.
"The first one is if you have any kind of bleeding from your bottom or blood in your poo. The second one is you knowing what's normal for your bowel habits, and it's different for everyone."
She added: "So, if you have consistent change in your bowel habits, that's something you should speak to your doctor about too. You might experience a pain or lump in your tummy, or weight loss you can't explain, or extreme tiredness.
"But I will say, all of these symptoms can be lots of other things so I don't want your viewers to worry 'oh my goodness I've got bowel cancer'. Go to your GP quickly and you could be ruling bowel cancer out. But if it is bowel cancer, the quicker you have it diagnosed it's much much better. At stage one pretty much everyone would survive that."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV and the ITV Hub
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