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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Charlotte McIntyre

Deborah James' mum says Prince William was 'like a son' in heartbreaking final weeks

Heather James recalled the heartwarming moment Prince William arrived to present her late daughter Dame Deborah James with her Damehood in her garden.

On Loose Women, she explained the family only found out the evening before that the Prince of Wales would be coming to the house to meet Deborah and enjoy a champagne afternoon tea.

Heather said: "We thought, 'What will be, will be.' We threw blankets over the tired sofas and he walked in, and Deborah and I thought, 'How do you address him?'

"That was taken away from us because it was, 'Hello, I'm William' and it was just like having another son, son-in-law with us."

Deborah James' mother Heather praised William (ITV)

William has continued that special connection with Deborah and Heather was left emotional as she watched the Prince share a message of support for Lorraine Kelly 's No Butts campaign.

He said: “Hi Lorraine, I just want to say a big thank you to you and your team for all you’re doing to raise awareness around bowel cancer through your No Butts campaign.

“As you know I got to meet Dame Deborah, so I know how important this was to her. 46,000 people each year get diagnosed with bowel cancer and yet many of us don’t know the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, particularly in us men.

William shared a message of support for Lorraine Kelly's No Butts campaign (ITV)

“So if you’re watching this, please take a second to listen and learn about the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer, it could save your life.”

ITV's Lorraine is running the campaign for a third year in a row and Lorraine has previously run the initiative alongside the late Deborah who died in June last year following a battle with the disease.

Meanwhile, Heather James explained her late daughter wanted to do one final piece of campaigning before her death.

"She was adamant that she wanted the bowel cancer the symptoms printed on [toilet roll] wrappers because everybody buys toilet roll and it was a campaign close to her heart that she wanted to see before she died," she told the Loose Women panel on Thursday. It took a bit longer to get the campaign going and two days before she died she knew that Tesco was going to do it and she saw how it was going to be."

She added: "I could see that was the last thing she had to achieve and then she started to slowly sort of go in my eyes. She was still with us, she was still there, but the peace that she had finally got those toilet rolls was amazing."

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