Dame Deborah James’ husband shares his final words to her ‘before she slipped away’

The late campaigner’s husband Sebastien revealed that she had ‘an incredibly peaceful death’
Daniel Keane6 August 2022

Dame Deborah James’ husband Sebastien has shared the final words he said to her before she “slipped away”.

The campaigner, who became known as bowelbabe, passed away aged 40 in June after battling bowel cancer for five years.

Speaking to The Sun, her beloved husband Sebastien said that he told her how proud he was of her in her final moments.

“I kissed her on the head. I told her how much I loved her, that I would look after the kids and the last thing I said to her was that I was so proud of her. Then she slipped away.”

He added: “She had an incredibly peaceful death, if there was a way to die well, then she managed it.

“At the very end, it was quite spiritual.”

Dame Deborah, a former deputy headteacher, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and subsequently kept her nearly one million Instagram followers up to date with her treatments.

Her candid posts about her progress and diagnosis, including videos of her dancing her way through treatment, won praise from both the public and media.

In her final months, the presenter of the BBC podcast You, Me And The Big C raised almost £7 million for cancer research, with the amount climbing further following her death.

Sebastien said he was in “total awe” of his late wife.

“It’s her magic, her way of finding joy in every moment - even in the darkest of times. That’s what I’ll miss most, it’s quite a rare thing,” he told the newspaper.

“It was at the very core of what made her unique.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in