Dame Deborah James's family call for national cancer strategy

The family of Dame Deborah James - a bowel cancer campaigner who urged people to "check their poo" for signs of the disease - have called for a long-term cancer strategy.

They urged all political parties to commit to ensuring earlier diagnosis and improve access to treatment.

The 40-year-old journalist and editor died in June 2022, five years after her stage 4 bowel cancer diagnosis.

A memorial fund set up in her name has since raised £12m for cancer research.

The Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK was established in May 2022. Dame Deborah's father said initiatives driven by the fund had ensured his daughter "lives in so many people's thoughts and ideas".

But Alistair James urged the government and other political parties to commit to a longer-term strategy which could catch the disease earlier and "give more people affected by cancer more time with the people they love".

In a letter published in The Sun newspaper, Dame Deborah's husband, Sebastien Bowen, her parents Alistair and Heather James and her siblings Ben James and Sarah Wieczorek, said they were joining Cancer Research UK in its Longer, Better Lives manifesto.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Alistair James said: "I think this current strategy of early diagnosis saves lives and Deborah would be saying 'Dad, it makes common sense. Just knock some heads together and see if we get everybody following it and working for it'."

The manifesto calls for the government to publish the long-term cancer strategy within one year of the general election, in order to "drive earlier diagnosis and reduce inequalities in access to treatment and care".

"That is why we are calling on all political parties to make the upcoming general election a landmark moment by committing to a long-term cancer strategy for England, helping to give more people affected by cancer more time with the people they love," the letter said.

They said the national cancer plan should include an increase in the NHS cancer workforce, as well as investments in vital diagnosis equipment to ensure "everyone who needs it can access the right test, in the right place, at the right time".

Source: NHS UK

The call comes weeks after analysis by the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK suggested that cases of bowel cancer were set to rise by 2040.

Bowel cancer cases will rise from the 42,800 currently diagnosed cases each year to 47,700 due to a growing and ageing population, according to the analysis.

Speaking about his eldest child, Mr James said the new campaign "brings back many painful memories, but also many happy memories. And the thing is, we're quite fortunate, Deborah might have died, but she lives in so many people's thoughts and ideas".

He added: "In the early stages, we knew little about bowel cancer. We knew little about even what was causing it.

"Deborah was 35, she was fit, she was a vegetarian, I would be the person you'd expect to get bowel cancer, not her.

"It's so sad that her diagnosis was really towards the end of stage three when we found out about it.

"And we all know early diagnosis, stage one and two, you've got nine out of 10 chances to live.

"Sadly, stage three and four, that's down to one out of 10 to live for five years."

The mother of two was the host of BBC's You, Me and the Big C podcast and received widespread praise for upfront attitude in talking about cancer, having widely shared her experiences on social media and urging people to get tested if they noticed any irregularities in their bowel movements.

Shortly before her death she was given a damehood by the then Duke of Cambridge in recognition of her fundraising efforts.

Mr James told Today that the family had promised Deborah that they would continue her instrumental work in smashing the stigma around cancer.

According to latest figures from NHS England, one in two people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime.

In the UK the four most common cancers are breast, lung, prostate and bowel.