Born: October 1st, 1981
Died: June 28th, 2022
Deborah James, a British podcaster, writer and cancer campaigner who chronicled her struggle with an incurable bowel tumour with candour and vivacity, died on Tuesday, more than five years after the illness was diagnosed.
Her death was announced on her Instagram account. “Deborah passed away peacefully today, surrounded by her family,” read a post on her highly popular account, Bowelbabe, adding some last words from James.
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“Find a life worth enjoying; take risks; love deeply; have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope. And finally, check your poo — it could just save your life.”
James co-hosted You, Me and the Big C, a BBC podcast about cancer, wrote a column about her journey through her illness for The Sun newspaper, tirelessly raised awareness and funds for the cause, and wrote a book, F*** You Cancer: How to face the big C.
Through these mediums, she sought to help others spot the early signs of bowel cancer, fight the taboos around the illness and help patients cope.
“Because of her, many many lives will be saved,” British prime minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter. “The awareness she brought to bowel cancer and the research her campaigning has funded will be her enduring legacy.”
Deborah James was the daughter of Heather and Alistair James. She graduated from the University of Exeter and became a deputy head teacher. She is survived by her parents; her husband, Sebastien Bowen; daughter, Eloise (12); son, Hugo (14); her brother, Ben James, and sister, Sarah Wieczorek.
In 2016, James believed she was experiencing the symptoms of bowel cancer, but wrote in her blog that her GP had dismissed her fears. A young woman with a generally healthy lifestyle, “I totally get why a GP would dismiss my self-diagnosis of bowel cancer especially in a neurotic hypochondriac such as myself,” she wrote. On December 15th, 2016, when she was 35, doctors spotted what turned out to be a Stage 4 tumour in her bowel.
That day, she and her husband drove to a wine shop and he bought her the most expensive bottle, “a beautifully rich, Leoville Barton 1996,” James told the charity Bowel Cancer UK shortly after her diagnosis. They finished off the bottle “as though Armageddon was scheduled for 7pm the next day”.
One study gave her eight months to live, and another said she had an 8 per cent chance of living for five years, she wrote. She quit her job and started chronicling her new life.
She described her insomnia, pain, numbness and constant fears of decline, and wrote about what it was like to wonder “if it’s too risky to put something in your diary for next week”. She detailed her medical emergencies, therapies, surgeries, and her body’s biological reactions to them.
But she also posted videos in which she sang Celine Dion songs in her hospital room, wrote about doing “retail therapy” at Harrods, described eating roast potatoes while watching a James Bond movie to recover from physical exhaustion and detailed overcoming her fear of flying. “I’m more likely to die of my cancer than on this plane,” she wrote on her blog as she sipped gin and tonic at 40,000 feet. “I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry!!”
Her Instagram profile, which had one million followers, featured selfies in hospital gowns and glamorous glittery dresses, smiling photos in a hospital ward and at fashion shows, and videos of her dancing on a wheelchair or with her husband at sunset by the sea.
“Greatest achievement 2021: Staying Alive,” she wrote as a caption for a video on Instagram in which she danced to the Bee Gees song on New Year’s Eve. “New Years Resolution 2022: Staying Alive!”
In the podcast, which she cofounded in 2018, she hosted conversations with other patients about how cancer affected their sex lives or what it meant to have the disease during the coronavirus pandemic. But she also opened up about her personal life and condition, and detailed her anxieties and feeling of powerlessness.
“Doing things like the podcast has given me purpose back,” she said on the podcast in May. “I have never felt alone because of that.”
Lauren Mahon, who cofounded and co-hosted the podcast, said that by talking about cancer in an intimate, heartfelt voice, she and James had helped dispel an aura of cynicism and awkwardness around the topic.
“We changed the way people talk about cancer in this country,” said Mahon, who is living with cancer. “I don’t even know any celebrity or Hollywood star that could have this profound impact on so many people on such a deep level.”
On May 10th, James announced she had stopped actively treating her cancer and had moved from a hospital to her parents’ house.
“I have tried so hard for five years,” she said on the podcast. “My body doesn’t want to play ball any more.”
Her followers expressed sorrow about the news and gratitude for her efforts, with tens of thousands of comments appearing on her social media. Her new cancer fund received nearly £7 million (more than €8m), well above her initial target of £250,000. Among her supporters were Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge.
“Every now and then, someone captures the heart of the nation with their zest for life & tenacious desire to give back to society. @bowelbabe is one of those special people,” the royals wrote on Twitter in May. “Thank you for giving hope to so many who are living with cancer.”
On May 12th, Downing Street announced that Queen Elizabeth had approved a damehood for James, and the next day Prince William visited James at her family house.
In an interview in May, James said she wanted a sombre funeral in black and white. “I think people look good in black and white,” she told the Times interviewer, lying back on a bed of cushions wearing red lipstick and sipping Champagne.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.