INTERVIEW

Deborah James’s parents: ‘There’s been progress on cancer — but not enough’

The late Dame Deborah James — aka Bowelbabe — would demand even more work to ensure earlier diagnosis, her parents say

Heather James with Deborah. She says her daughter was a force of nature who fought to the very last to teach people about “the brown cancer nobody wanted to talk about”
Heather James with Deborah. She says her daughter was a force of nature who fought to the very last to teach people about “the brown cancer nobody wanted to talk about”
Andrew Billen
The Times

Twenty-two months after Dame Deborah James’s horribly early death from bowel cancer, we can surely console ourselves that she would have been pleased with the progress of her campaign to prevent cancer claiming more lives. In less than two months between launching the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK and her dying, she raised £7 million for research and public awareness campaigns. The fund has now reached £13 million.

Even more significantly, thanks to her, talking about bowel cancer is no longer taboo. Her catchphrase “check your poo” (for blood) is probably heard as often as “eat your five a day”. Her mother Heather James, inheritor of her near-million Instagram followers, is personally supporting patients and relatives. “We try our best to help,” she says,