Lorraine Kelly was left tearful as she spoke with Dame Deborah James ' mum on her ITV show on Wednesday morning.
The TV presenter spoke with her mother Heather in the ITV studio five months after Deborah died of Stage 4 bowel cancer.
Alongside Dame Deborah’s husband Sebastien and the couple’s kids, Hugo, 15, and Eloise, 13, Heather said she is still inspired by her daughter’s love of life and her ‘rebellious hope’.
Lorraine described being in a café on holiday recently and spotting a person at a nearby table who was wearing Deborah’s bowel cancer movement ‘Rebellious Hope’ shirts, saying: “Instantly, you’re friends. We’re in the same gang.”
Heather said: “You think, ‘They’ve got that rebellious hope as well’. They’re supporting it. Then it’s getting the message out there.”
Lorraine went on to praise Deborah’s immense legacy with her campaigning for early bowel cancer diagnosis as well as her two children.
Dr Hilary, who was also in the studio and campaigned with Deborah for the programme’s No Butt’s campaign, said: “She was beautiful. She was fun. She was ebullient.”
Heather replied: “Obviously we will miss Deborah. She was such a big part of our lives.
“She was amazing. She did live three lives in a short time, or a lot more than that.”
Becoming tearful, Lorraine was soon wiping tears from her eyes at the emotional conversation as she said: “The amount she achieved was astonishing.”
Heather continued: “And I think she taught us how to live while you’re dying. I owe it to Deborah, we all do, to live our life, because we never know how long we’ve got.
“She was adamant about enjoying life and having rebellious hope. It will be six years next week when she was first diagnosed. When my rollercoaster life started.”
This comes after Dame Deborah’s mum told how their first Christmas without her will be exceptionally hard.
She recalled last year how Deborah found a shoe ornament for her daughter Eloise and also bought some giant Nutcrackers which will be 'hard to see' again this year.
Heather said: “We all have our different ways of coping. But we all try to enjoy life, in the way that Deborah would have wanted.”
She admitted when the temptation is to 'hide away' she will ask herself ‘What would Deborah do?’
She added: “Even in her final weeks she lived life and she was an inspiration. It was one of her greatest gifts, and it’s one that she’s left us all.”
