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Dame Deborah James Says Collaborations Will Bring More Than £1 Million To Her BowelBabe Fund
Dame Deborah James has revealed that her collaborations will raise more than £1million to her BowelBabe Fund in recent weeks.
The 40-year-old, who is receiving end-of-life care at her parents’ home in Woking after suffering stage four colon cancer since being diagnosed in December 2016, announced on Instagram that the extra money will provide her fund with another year of funding. .
She said: ‘I’m so excited that over the next few weeks (albeit as I’ve been navigating this stuff about end-of-life care!), raising money for @bowelbabefun’s collaborations) I’ll finally bring in more than £1 million for the fund, which will give us another year of funding.”
Deborah has collaborated on a number of projects, including the publication of her second book on August 18, a clothing collection featuring InTheStyle and a rose named after her, with a portion of sales from the collaborations going to her fund.
The mother of two founded the BowelBabe Fund to raise awareness of colon cancer and raise money to fund research into the disease.
Dame Deborah James has announced on Instagram that her collaborations over the past few weeks will raise more than £1million for the BowelBabe Fund
The 40-year-old, who is receiving end-of-life care at her parents’ home in Woking after suffering stage four colon cancer since being diagnosed in December 2016, announced on Instagram that the extra money will provide her fund with another year of funding.
Deborah’s book, How To Live When You Could Be Dead, quickly rose to the top of Amazon’s bestsellers in just 24 hours.
The book, which will be published by Penguin Books, will donate £3 from each sale to Deborah’s BowelBabe Fund for Cancer Research UK.
Deborah also caught the eye of fashion brand Scamp & Dude, who are now donating £10 from each of the £30 ‘Swag Bags’ sales to the fund.
Meanwhile, the cancer activist revealed a few weeks ago that a beautiful new white rose variety was named after her.
The campaigner, pictured here with her daughter Eloise, says designing her clothes lime has kept her going
Introduced by World of Roses and grown by The Harkness Rose Company, the new white flowers feature a subtle pink ballet slippers – and £2.50 from each Dame Deborah James rose sale goes to her fund.
In her latest story announcing the recent influx of money, Dame Deborah thanked her followers.
She said: ‘Thank you as always for supporting the fund, it means so much to me to be able to leave the largest possible pot of money to support brilliant people in their quest for a cure for cancer.’
This comes shortly after she launched two ‘Rebellious Hope’ t-shirts – saying the tagline was: ‘really what has’ [her] through the last 5 years’.
Designing the clothing line was something “other than cancer,” according to Deborah, who credits creating the range to bring her some luck.
The 40-year-old, pictured here with her daughter Eloise, is currently receiving end-of-life hospice care at her parents’ Woking home so that her children don’t have to see her final days at their family home
The new shirts complement the collection the 40-year-old recently launched with InTheStyle to raise money for the BowelBabe Fund, which she set up to raise awareness of colon cancer and raise money for research into the disease. .
Since then, the BowelBabe fund has reached over £7.5 million, with over £650,000 raised from her InTheStyle collection alone, which she says has made her “so happy and grateful.”
Post about the two new shirts on Instagramwrote Dame Deborah: ‘Making these has really kept me going these past few days and I’m so proud of them.
“I talk a lot about this quote ‘Rebellious Hope’ – it’s really what got me through the past 5 years and I’m blown away by how many of you have supported and worn my t-shirt design.”
She added: “I’ve been up and down the last few days to be honest but where I had the strength I discussed ideas and we decided to make these two final designs at your request and it’s fair to tell me I absolutely love it!’
In describing the two shirts, she said that the black is a ‘fitted style with gold leaf’, and the pink is a ‘standard fit’ style, which is less dressy.
Deborah added that she shared the Instagram post later than planned, as she was having “one of those days… unfortunately like many of my days now.”
She concluded, ‘I’ve only just been awake enough to do this! Argh dying is hard you know!! Thank you for your continued support and sweet messages.’
The launch follows the release of the main collection on May 26.
Deborah announced the launch that day on Instagram, sharing a video where she talked about designing the range, a time she described as a “hybrid” life, working between home and the hospital.
But she said, ‘We made it, we made it. I enjoyed it. It brought me to life, it gave me something else to think about.”
She added: “The reason I really wanted to do it is because it’s something completely different from cancer.
‘I love fashion. Anyone who has followed me for years and years knows that I love my dresses,” she said.
‘I’m always on the hunt for the best prints. I like clothes, that makes me happy.’
The 40-year-old said she “really hopes” that everyone loves the collection as much as she loved designing it and that the clothes bring people joy and make them feel good when they put them on.
To wrap up her video, she revealed that she will be wearing another dress from the collection from now until her death.
She acknowledged that it sounds “somewhat morbid” but she really enjoys it.
Her announcement of her collection comes after she recently shared The sun that she was “afraid to fall asleep” because she doesn’t know how much longer she has.
She added that she had felt a “deep love” from her family, saying: “I think my family is broken, they were all incredible – they went out of their way to look after me and take care of me.”
Deborah was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in December 2016 and was told early on that she might not live more than five years — a milestone reached in the fall of 2021.
She shared an Instagram post earlier this month revealing that “no one knows how much longer she has.”
She wrote: ‘The message I never wanted to write. We’ve tried everything, but my body just isn’t cooperating.
“My active care has ended and I’ve now moved to a home care hospice, with my incredible family around me and the focus is on making sure I’m not in pain and spending time with them.”
She receives hospice care at her parents’ home in Woking, to spare her children the difficult memories of spending her last days in the family home in London.