Dame Deborah James’ mum marks her 41st birthday with heartfelt message: ‘How we wish you were still with us’-Rachael O'Connor-Entertainment – Metro

Dame Deborah James’ family are today marking her 41st birthday without her (Picture: Instagram)

Dame Deborah James’ mum Heather has marked what should have been her 41st birthday with a loving post of remembrance.

The podcaster and author died in June of this year, five years after being diagnosed with bowel cancer.

Dame Deborah influenced millions of lives as she worked to rise awareness of bowel cancer symptoms, and was awarded a Dameship for her services by Prince William earlier this year.

Many have pointed squarely to her as the reason their own bowel cancer was detected early, as they learned to recognise early symptoms thanks to her campaigning.

Now Dame Deborah’s family are marking her 41st birthday without her, with her own mum paying tribute on the bittersweet day.

Taking to Instagram, Heather shared a precious snap of Dame Deborah and wrote: ‘Happy birthday to our darling daughter.

Dame Deborah reached millions of people with her continued campaigning for bowel cancer symptoms to be more recognisable (Picture: Instagram)

Dame Deborah shared an extremely close relationship with her mum Heather (Picture: Instagram)

‘How we wish you were still with us but so proud of all you achieved and the legacy that you have left.

‘You will forever live in our hearts.’

Hundreds took to Heather’s Instagram post sharing their own birthday wishes and condolences, with one writing: ‘Sending our thoughts and love to you all today. Happy heavenly birthday Debs.’

‘Sending you so much love,’ another wrote.

One fan of the late campaigner wrote that DameDeborah’s ‘life and legacy has touched me profoundly. Just know that your daughter did make a difference!’

Dame Deborah shared a close bond with her family, particularly her parents, who helped care for her at home in the final weeks of her life.

Her second book, How To Live When You Should Be Dead, was posted posthumously in August, and featured some incredibly emotional scenes as the author reflected on her terminal diagnosis.

She had even warned mum Heather not to read the final chapters – advice Heather later admitted she didn’t follow.

Heather wrote about how she was so proud of her daughter in a new post (Picture: instagram@bowelgran)

Speaking on Lorraine following Dame Deborah’s death, Heather – also known as Bowel Gran –  described the experience as ‘emotional’ and revealed it contained ‘very, very good advice for children.’

And in another interview on BBC Breakfast, she reflected on one of her final conversations with her daughter, admitting ‘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.

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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?’

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