rivers2cross

It was back in September 2017 that I spent a really nice evening in the company of Deborah James in Richmond for Chapter 16 in The Record. It was a fascinating, and enlightening experience listening to her story, and talking at length about bowel cancer. Deborah, married with two young children, has an aggressive form of stage 4 bowel cancer. Since her diagnosis she has played a major role in raising awareness about the disease, as well as raising a considerable amount of money for various cancer charities. Deborah uses the “Bowel Babe” name on social media, and I would highly recommend following her. She leads her life at 100 miles an hour – I would compare her to a human hurricane!

Deborah spoke with great passion about bowel cancer, but also with a lot of common sense. Since her diagnosis she has undergone gruelling courses of treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy as well as undergoing major surgeries, so not surprisingly there are times when she is completely wiped out, but she keeps bouncing back, and Deborah refuses to let cancer rule her life. It’s important to appreciate that she is not cured, and remains on treatment.

I discovered that Deborah has at least one thing in common with my late mum – a love of wine! We chatted for about three hours with beers and wine as refreshments, and although the conversation covered every aspect surrounding her illness, Deborah was great fun, a master of fruity language, and with laughter never too far away. She is a really inspiring individual, and it really was a great chapter for the The Record, and her first record is a classic. I also owe Deborah a vote of thanks as she put me onto Greg Gilbert and Stacey Heale, who also feature in the book, as well as suggesting I contact the late and much missed Kelly “kickasskell” Smith who ended up writing the foreword for the book.

The chapter on Deborah is definitely a snapshot in time. She has done so much since our meeting including being part of the educational and successful award-winning podcast “You, Me and the Big C” #youmebigc which is well worth checking out. The number one podcast features Deborah, along with Lauren Mahon and Steve Bland talking about all things to do with cancer. It will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions, but it’s a brilliant listen. Deborah was one of the fortunate (if you can phrase cancer like that) cancer patients who remained on treatment during the pandemic, and thankfully so as she had a cancer scare during lockdown which could have had dire consequences if she had not been on treatment. Sadly many cancer patients haven’t been so fortunate, and it is vital that patients get the treatment they need. Deborah is going through a very difficult and serious time with her health at the moment, so much love and best wishes to her x

The Record took me two and a half years to complete. Deborah managed to write and have her brilliant book F*** You Cancer book published in a matter of months, which was quite an achievement given her ongoing cancer treatment and work load. I managed to catch up with her at the Henley Literary Festival in 2018 where she was speaking about her book.

The Record was written in memory of my mum who died of bowel cancer in August 2016. All profits are donated to Bowel Cancer UK, and over £1000 has been raised to date. If the book can do just a fraction of what Deborah has managed to do in terms of raising awareness about bowel cancer and fundraising then I will be extremely happy.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.