Lorraine Kelly apologised to viewers as she fought back tears today.
Opening her ITV show on Wednesday, the Scottish TV host paid a touching tribute to Deborah James - a bowel cancer campaigner who lost her life to the disease yesterday at just 40 years old.
The mum-of-two, who launched a fundraising page called Bowel Babe to raise money for Cancer Research UK, was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer just before Christmas 2016, when she was aged 35. Dame Deborah died surrounded by her family on Tuesday, weeks after she confirmed she had stopped active treatment and was receiving palliative care at her parents’ home in Woking.
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Lorraine played a sentimental obituary to Dame Deborah showing her laughing and dancing and full of life despite going through such gruelling cancer treatments. It highlighted her fundraising achievements and the legacy that she will be leaving behind.
After the video finished playing, Lorraine emotionally said: "Love her." She went on to introduce a guest, close friend of Deborah - Steve Bland.
However, Lorraine became suddenly choked up. Fighting back tears with a wobbly voice, she said: "Sorry. Just seeing that. We knew this was going to happen, but it still doesn’t feel quite real."
Steve replied: "No, it doesn't. Last night was very odd. Very surreal. Very numb, and I was awake at the crack of dawn this morning and it just hit me. This moment, like you say, we've known for five years it was coming. It's been five and a half years since she was diagnosed.
"I think that's what makes what she's done in those past five and a half years, what she's packed in, and the people that she's helped, and the lives that she's saved all the more remarkable."
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