Heartbreaking.
Dame Deborah James sadly passed away in June at the age of 41 after a battle with bowel cancer, but it has since been revealed that she left a heartfelt message to her children before she died.
The journalist continuously worked up until her passing to inform her followers about the symptoms of bowel cancer and updates on how her treatment was going.
Before her tragic death, BowelBabe as she is known on Instagram wrote a letter to her two children Hugo and Eloise and shared it with her husband Sebastien which encouraged them to only marry for love.
The letter is set to appear in the family’s upcoming book How To Live When You Could Be Dead which will be released later this month.
The book talks about Deborah meeting her husband for the first time and their relationship’s ups and downs.
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“I never quite knew if you could really have a love of your life, but I now know what the very core of unquestioned love is between two people,” Deborah wrote according to an extract published by The Sun.
“I have always loved my husband”.
Speaking to her children directly, she said to “be brave” and to “be your number one cheerleader.”
Urging them to appreciate and find happiness in the small things in life, she said that nature was something she began to love more as her life came to an end.
She wrote: “Each day, do things that make you happy – build them into your life and never criticise others for the things that make them happy.”
During the last few months of her life, James’ raised a huge amount of money – over £7 million – for a number of cancer charities through her Bowelbabe fundraiser. She was also widely praised for her work in raising awareness and breaking taboos about the symptoms of bowel cancer.
For more information on bowel cancer, head to the HSE’s website right here.
