Tributes Paid To Cancer Research Fundraiser

Tributes have been paid to the late Dame Deborah James, who raised millions of pounds for research into bowel cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 2016.

Dame Deborah, who was awarded the title by Prince William in May, has died from the disease at the age of 40, but not before helping to raise nearly £7 million for Cancer Research UK, Bowel Cancer UK and the Royal Marsden Hospital – a specialist cancer treatment facility.

The cash was raised through the Bowlebabe Fund, which she set up after her diagnosis.

Dame Deborah had been a head teacher before her diagnosis, but became the host of the You, Me and the Big C podcast to raise awareness about cancer. The BBC, which hosted the podcast, has paid its own tribute to her in a documentary called ‘The Last Dance’.

Bowel Cancer UK chief executive Genevieve Edwards aid Dame Deborah showed “incredible energy” and a “marvellous knack of making things happen”.

While increased awareness of the possible symptoms of bowel cancer – her last words in the final podcast were “check your poo” – may save many lives through earlier diagnosis, the research funding could go a long way to helping the life sciences sector find new drugs to enable people to live far longer.

Among drugs that may have a positive impact is Panitumumab, a drug Dame Deborah was given herself. It has been shown in new trails to extend life by up to three years. It has been offered by the NHS in combination with chemotherapy since 2017. It works on a form of bowel cancer known as RAS wild Type, which accounts for 55 per cent of cases.

The new data on the effectiveness of the treatment was presented this month at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago.

Find out more about life science marketing here.