James suffered a medical emergency that most people don’t survive and it almost caused her death on January 6.
Deborah James, 40, a journalist from London, has incurable bowel cancer. She revealed that she had an awful night in hospital after she was rushed back into theatre, following a medical emergency in which she almost died.
The former deputy headteacher turned cancer campaigner, has been living with stage four bowel cancer since she was diagnosed in December 2016, and was told early on that she might not live beyond five years – a milestone that passed in the autumn.
She has described how she loves to appreciate “the simple things” as she enjoyed time spent outside of the hospital. She updated her 385,000 Instagram followers on her mood amid her ongoing battle with stage 4 bowel cancer and told her fans and friends alike how “incredible” it felt to have the sun shining on her face.
She also posted a number of updates on her Instagram story, as she enjoyed a winter walk through nature. James presents BBC Radio 5 Live’s podcast You, Me and the Big C and is also a newspaper columnist.
She recently shared her experience of being in a situation where she thought it would be the end for her and having to say goodbye to her children. James shared: “I called my husband Seb, 42, who was at a physio appointment around the corner, and said: “Seb, I’m not well, I think we need to get to A&E.”
“I started aggressively vomiting very large volumes of bright red blood. I now know I was hemorrhaging and lost a good liter and a half of blood. It was full of very large clots and it felt like I was vomiting up tissue. It was hideous. I started to feel myself blacking out, I was shaking and feeling very dizzy.”
“I couldn’t think straight but I knew I had minutes to get help if that. I was scared but I didn’t have the energy to feel anxious, I just knew I needed help and I had one shot at it. I called an ambulance because I could feel myself starting to lose consciousness.”
“I can’t describe to you the trauma that now exists, like a broken horror film in my head, of saying goodbye to my children in that split second. I had no strength. I had blood all over me. All I could say was, “I love you – forever”.
“At that moment, I knew I was dying. Everything was turning very grey; I couldn’t stand upright. I knew it was very unlikely that I’d return to my home again, but it didn’t matter.”
“I somehow managed to call my interventional radiologist, Nicos Fotiadis, who was due to do my operation the next day and has operated on me 10 times before. I managed to say: “Nicos, it’s Deborah James, I’m bleeding out.”
“I know I saw Seb at a few points and could only tell him that I loved him.point 198 | I just knew I didn’t want to die, despite being very aware that I was dying.point 261 |
I couldn’t think about my kids because it would send too many tears down my face.point 68 | I was not accepting the fact I was dying but I also knew it was utterly out of my control.point 139 | ”point 146 | 1
“I now know not many people survive this, and I understand why it’s a medical emergency. I knew that I was in a very critical period judging the number of machines I was hooked up to. I couldn’t believe I was still alive,” she added.
She concluded that those incredible heroes gave her another day, another sunrise, another chance, adding “There are no words, just thank you.”
After sharing her experiences on living with the disease on social media, James became known as the “Bowel Babe” and began writing a column for the Sun.
The mother-of-two was diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer in December 2016 and over five years later, she has continued to be a passionate advocate and patron of Bowel Cancer UK.
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