Dame Deborah James’ fund raises more than £4m for cancer research
Podcast host Deborah James has reached the £4 million mark for her cancer research fundraising initiative.
The 40-year-old, known online as bowel babe after campaigning to raise awareness of the disease, has so far raised more than 16 times her original £250,000 goal for Cancer Research UK.
It comes after Number 10 announced she has been honoured with a damehood for her “tireless campaigning” on the issue.
James reached the milestone yesterday morning after donations from more than 220,000 supporters, including high-profilefigures such as the duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Her Just Giving page said it is “raising money to fund clinical trials and research into personalised medicine for cancer patients and supporting campaigns to raise awareness of bowel cancer”.
The presenter of popular BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C disclosed on Monday that she had moved to hospice-at-home care to treat her terminal bowel cancer.
James started co-presenting the podcast with Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland in 2018 and they earned praise for their frank discussions about cancer. Bland died in September that year, at the age of 40, two years after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
James, a former deputy headteacher, was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the end of 2016 and has documented her treatment and journey frankly throughout for her more than half a million Instagram followers.
In an Instagram post on Monday, she said she did not know how long she had left, and that while the last six months had been “heart-breaking” to go through, she had been surrounded by “so much love” and had “no regrets”.
On Thursday night, Number 10 confirmed that James had been conferred a damehood by the Queen.
Speaking about the damehood, James said: “I don't know what to say. I’m blown away and feel incredibly honoured.
“I don’t feel like I deserve this. I can’t tell you what this means to my family, it’s so much to take in.”