Deborah James, a 40-year-old journalist, blogger and social activist, has passed away. In 2016, she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The woman spoke about her struggle with cancer via social media and the popular BBC Radio podcast. She dropped out of treatment in May, saying that “her body just doesn’t want to play the game”.
- Deborah James regularly talked about the disease in her social media, breaking taboos such as symptoms of colon cancer
- The woman was also involved in charity, collecting money to fight this type of cancer. As much as 7 million pounds went to the account of the fund that was created thanks to it
- Colorectal cancer is one of the most common and deadly cancers. It often develops asymptomatically, so diagnosis is very late
- In the case of the British woman, the disease was diagnosed when the cancer was already in the fourth stage
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
The worst stage of a fatal cancer
Deborah James was a computer science teacher at one of the high schools near London. She worked there until 2016, which changed her life. It was then that she heard from her doctor that her colon had developed a cancer. The baseline status was not the best: colorectal cancer was stage XNUMX.
«Five years ago, at this time, I was told« »You have colorectal cancer« », she recalled last December. on Instagram. «This is stage four, an incurable cancer, your chances of surviving five years are probably slim. (…) However, five years ago I started to live step by step, day by day. Knowing the statistics are terrible. Less than 8 percent will live five years or less with my type of mutation. But no overall statistics can predict YOUR score, ”she wrote.
The woman quickly succumbed to treatment. At the same time, she began to speak out about her illness – first as a columnist for «The Sun», then one of the co-hosts of the BBC Radio 5 podcast «You, Me and Big C». She also regularly published posts on her blog and Instagram. In 2018, she published a book entitled «F *** You Cancer: How to Face the Big C, Live Your Life and Still Be Yourself». She set up the Bowelbabe Fund to raise money to finance the fight against colorectal cancer. At the time of her death, the fund had £ 7 million in it.
In June last year for the first time she said publicly that the treatment was not producing the desired results. Less than a year later, in May this year, she announced that she had given up therapy and was taken into home hospice care.
«We’ve tried everything, but my body just won’t play the game. The active fight is over and I am now in hospice care at home, with my amazing family who make sure I don’t feel any pain. Nobody knows how much I have left, I can’t walk, I sleep most days, and most of the things I took for granted are daydreams. (…) my body simply cannot last anymore »she wrote.
James died a month after this news was published. The relatives of the presenter informed about her death via her Instagram account.
What is colon cancer?
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer. It usually occurs in two parts of the organ: the colon and the rectum. Initially, there are few or no symptoms. The most telltale sign that something is wrong is rectal bleeding (blood in your stools or your stools turning dark brown). It also happens that patients are first diagnosed with anemia, the signs of which are, among others, chronic fatigue and pale skin. Some people also complain of recurring constipation and diarrhea.
A colonoscopy is a diagnostic test to detect a tumor in the large intestine. It is recommended as part of cancer prophylaxis in people over 50 (once every 10 years), as well as in potentially burdened people, in whom a close family has been diagnosed with this type of cancer.
As part of diagnostics, you can also perform tests to assess the risk of cancer. At Medonet Market, you will find a package of cancer tests for women and a package of cancer tests for men.
The prognosis for colorectal cancer is not the best and it is usually influenced by late diagnosis (the tumor is detected in the advanced stage). The five-year survival rate in the case of detection of cancer in the first stage oscillates around 90%, in the fourth stage, which was found in Deborah James, it is less than 10%.
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