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Dame Deborah James’ mother Heather has said she struggled with the idea of celebrating the first Christmas without her daughter and initially wanted to ‘hide’ during the festive season.
After a nearly six year battle with bowel cancer, Dame Deborah died aged 40 in June.
The BBC podcast presenter, campaigner and blogger known as ‘Bowel Babe’ had been diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2016 and was told early on that she may not live beyond five years.
Charting her cancer journey on her Instagram account as well as her podcast; You, Me and the Big C Dame Deborah also raised more than £6million for Cancer Research UK in the final weeks of her life.
But, with the family facing the first Christmas without her, Heather has said that she didn’t want to celebrate at first.
‘Christmas is hard for anybody who has lost someone and Deborah loved Christmas, she was so into it,’ Heather shared while appearing on Lorraine on Wednesday.
Dame Deborah and Heather were known as ‘Bowel Babe’ and ‘Bowel Gran’ (Picture: Leon McGowran)
‘The build-up and the enthusiasm and the sparkles. Have I got that energy? I tried for her.
‘Part of me would like to not do it, but that’s not what she wanted.’
Heather said that she’s been trying to keep alive traditions that Dame Deborah loved to do, including making table decorations.
‘We made, or we tried to make table decorations last week—I did it with my other daughter and my future daughter in law and we cracked open the champagne—I drank most of it,’ she added.
‘I knew Deb would say “mum that’s great you are doing this”, so I want to put the effort in to do it.
‘Part of me would like to hide and not do it, but that’s not what we are going to do. We are going to celebrate Deborah.’
Dame Deborah campaigned for more bowel cancer awareness (Picture: Supplied by the James family)
More than six months after her daughter’s death, Heather also spoke about how proud she was of her daughter’s #NoButts campaign with Lorraine and how she helped raise awareness.
‘The way she did it helped break down the taboo of talking about poo and it has made people go to their doctors and it is a great legacy,’ she said.
She also spoke about how Dame Deborah ‘taught us all how to live while you are dying’.
‘She was adamant about life and enjoying it and have rebellious hope like she did.’
In August, Dame Deborah’s posthumously published memoir How to Live When You Could Be Dead broke 2022 records and topped the book charts.
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It debuted at number one in the UK after it sold 40,878 copies and became the bestselling non-fiction debut of 2022 at the time.
It was completed in her final weeks after she moved to hospice care at her parents house.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV.
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Dame Deborah passed away in June.
