Nicola Sturgeon has paid tribute to Dame Deborah James following the sad news of her death last night. Bowel cancer campaigner and blogger Deborah passed away yesterday following a five-year fight against the disease.
Scotland's First Minister praised Deborah's bravery and strength, as well as her incredible fundraising efforts. Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Ms Sturgeon said: “Can I take the opportunity to personally pay tribute to Deborah James?
“Her loss at such a young age is clearly tragic, but the work she did to raise awareness of bowel cancer and of course the immense amount of money she raised will make such a difference, and my thoughts are with her family today.”
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Lorraine Kelly, who became a close friend of Deborah over the past few years and teamed up with her for the Bowelbabe campaign on her daily ITV show, hailed her as "remarkable".
Lorraine told GMB's Susannah Reid this morning: "She's remarkable and we're going to remember her with a lot of joy, and boy would she have made some politician.
"She was just a woman who got things done.
"It's amazing, even in the last couple of weeks of her life, she got them to put symptoms of bowel cancer on toilet paper, which is such a brilliant idea, why didn't we do that before?"
Deborah's death was announced by her family last night in an emotional social media post.
The mum-of-two passed away five years after first being diagnosed with bowel cancer, and will always be remembered for her selfless efforts to fundraise and get as much awareness about the illness out there in her final days.
Deborah moved in with her parents to receive end of life care in her final months.
The former deputy headteacher was diagnosed in 2016 and kept her nearly one million Instagram followers up to date with her treatments. Her candid and at times, hilarious, posts about her progress and diagnosis, including videos of her dancing her way through treatment, won praise from the public and media alike.
Alongside Lauren Mahon and Rachael Bland, she launched the You, Me And The Big C podcast in 2018. The trio, who were all former or current cancer patients, candidly discussed life with, treatment of and other topics relating to cancer.
In May, she shared the news that she was not going to be receiving any more treatment to fight the disease and was moving to palliative care.
“The tweet I never wanted to write,” she said on Twitter. “The time has come to say goodbye. 5 years to prepare, doesn’t make it any easy.”
After making the announcement, she set up the Bowelbabe Fund, which raised more than £6 million – more than 24 times her original target of £250,000.
A partnership with fashion brand In the Style, which saw t-shirts with Deborah's 'Rebellious Hope' mantra printed on them sell out every time they were restocked, raised more than £1million.
Yesterday, STV presenter Laura Boyd paid tribute to Deborah.
Laura has lived with chronic myeloid leukaemia for more than a decade and sent out her gratitude to Dame Deborah for all that she did in her years following her diagnosis and the recent weeks.
"Thank you for all you did for the cancer community, Laura said.
"You gave us hope, happiness &, of course, Rebellious Hope."
A Beatson Cancer Charity spokesperson said: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dame Deborah James.
"Dame Deborah has been an inspiration to many over the years since her bowel cancer diagnosis and has not let it stop her from enjoying her life - even in her final days.
"Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
"Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Scotland. We would like to use this opportunity to encourage anyone who is experiencing a change in their bowel habits, unexplained weight loss, a pain or lump in their stomach or any other unexplained symptoms to speak to their GP."
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