Dame Deborah James warned mum not to read ‘very emotional’ final chapters of her book-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Dame Deborah James told her mum to avoid reading the last chapters of her book as she bravely fought her battle with bowel cancer.

The former headteacher, who hosted the You Me And The Big C podcast, died at the age of 40 from the disease in June, after being diagnosed in 2016.

In the final weeks of her life, she was cared for by her parents in Woking, Surrey and completed her second book How To Live When You Could Be Dead, which was published posthumously today.

Before her death, the mum-of-two described the book on Instagram as a guide on how to ‘have a positive mindset when we are faced with life’s biggest challenges.’

However, Dame Deborah, known as Bowel Babe, warned her mum, Heather James, to not read the last moments of her novel.

Speaking on Thursday’s episode of Lorraine, Heather revealed she hadn’t followed her daughter’s advice and had read How To Live When You Could Be Dead in its entirety.

Heather, who is also known as Bowel Gran, described the experience as ‘emotional’ and revealed it contained ‘very, very good advice for children.’

Dame Deborah told her mum not to finish her book (Picture: REX/@bowelgran)

While speaking to host Christine Lampard, Heather said Dame Deborah ‘gave me confidence while she was here.’

‘She gave me the confidence to get the word out about cancer and checking your poo and to be positive about living a good life when things go wrong,’ she added.

Heather also shared Dame Deborah’s powerful body positivity message, saying: ‘If your body still helps you to live, be grateful for it.’

Dame Deborah wrote two books (Picture: Instagram)

On Tuesday, Heather gave her first interview since her daughter’s death, revealing one of their final conversations.

Appearing on Tuesday’s BBC Breakfast, she said: ‘I think the hardest thing was knowing she was going to die. My heartache was knowing as a mother I couldn’t do anything about that and I think that was the hardest for me to cope with.

Dame Deborah with her children (Picture: Getty/Instagram)

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‘We had some good times. I can remember lying in bed, probably just about a week or so before she died and she was quite poorly that night and she went, “I do love you” and I went, “I love you”.

‘She went “I have no regrets” and I went “That’s brilliant”, how many people could say that? But she did say “I don’t want to die”. And that’s the hardest, saddest part.’

Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV.

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