DEBORAH James is “completely blown away” and “lost for words” after being awarded a Damehood last night.
Trending In The News columnist, who received the honour last night, was praised by Good Morning Britain hosts as Trending In The News’s Lizzie Parry sat down with them.
Dame Debs, 40, has raised nearly £4million since Monday when she revealed she was on end-of-life care.
And she is determined to get reach the £5million milestone by the weekend. Donations can be made at bowelbabe.org.
Pal Lizzie told GMB: “Debs is completely blown away by it. I spoke to her last night and for once she was a bit lost for words.
“The outpouring of love this week and the incredible love she has been shown, we just felt why not give it a try.”
READ MORE ON DEBORAH JAMES
Trending In The News yesterday launched a campaign to call for the mum-of-two to be bestowed with a Damehood.
Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and No 10 pulled out all the stops to credit her bravery and promptly announced the honour.
Lizzie continued: “It became really obvious really quickly that the Palace and No10 were so touched by Deborah’s story and in a matter of hours turned around this incredible feat.
“Ever since her diagnosis, her driving ambition has been to stop other people from facing what she’s had to.
“The last week we have seen it with her incredible fundraising, and the legacy she will leave behind – I think this is just the icing on the cake for her.”
Demure Debs earlier told Trending In The News of her shock at being made a Dame saying: “OMFG, this is crazy.”
She added: “I don’t know what to say. I’m blown away and feel incredibly honoured.
“I don’t feel like I deserve this. I can’t tell you what this means to my family, it’s so much to take in.”
Her kids Eloise, 12, and Hugo, 14, added: “We’re just speechless, we’re so, so proud.”
The likes of David Beckham, Talk TV’s Piers Morgan, Anthony Joshua, Lorraine Kelly and Giovanna Fletcher, and leading charities all backed calls for Dame Debs.
Even as she stares death in the face, Deborah’s determination to raise awareness of her rare cancer has not faltered.
Trending In The News’s Health Editor added: “Over the last five years she has had countless messages from people – we’ve had countless messages too – and it’s just incredible.
“She has saved thousands of lives. This will enable her to carry on doing that,” Lizzie added.
“She’s got this lovely phrase that she feels like she was riding on the wings of science, when she was first diagnosed, the drugs that kept her alive for so long weren’t available to bowel cancer patients.
“So the fund for her will be so vital – she said to me last night that she wants to hit £5million by the weekend.
“Her family are incredibly comforted by what’s happening at the moment and seeing that outpouring of love is really important.”
Deborah revealed she has stopped receiving active treatment and will spend her last days at her parents’ home in Woking.
She was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer just days before Christmas in 2016.
Deborah, known to fans as BowelBabe, has shared every step of her journey with Sun readers and her legion of loyal Instagram followers.
Even as she stares death in the face, her determination to raise awareness of her rare cancer has not faltered.
Trending In The News columnist raised a whopping £2million in just 16 hours after launching her BowelBabe Fund.
She asked supporters to buy her a drink to “see me out this world” by donating the cost of a gin and tonic to the fund.
Trending In The News columnist said it would raise money for further life-saving cancer research “to give more Deborah’s more time”.
The money will be donated between Cancer Research UK, Bowel Cancer UK and the Royal Marsden.
She added that she had always wanted to use her platform in a good way.
“I want to raise a pocket of money to go across the three charities which have supported me.
“My cancer didn’t define me but it never went away, we knew it was going to catch me in the end I had to navigate life with it,” she added.
The hero cancer campaigner has charted her journey through her column ‘Things Cancer Made Me Say’ and the ‘You Me and the Big C‘ podcast.
Read More on Trending In The News
In her final column for Trending In The News Online, she said: “My body just can’t continue anymore. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that my last six months have been pretty hellish health wise.
“So I sadly find myself in the place that I never wanted to be — the next crossroads. My body is so emaciated that I have no choice but to surrender to the inevitable.”
