Dame Deborah James's lookalike daughter Eloise, 15, launches campaign in tribute to her late mother

Daily Mail​

22-04-2025

Dame Deborah James 's teenage daughter has made her television debut as part of her dedication to continuing her mother's legacy in the fight against bowel cancer.
Appearing on ITV 's Lorraine this morning, Eloise, 15, stepped into the public eye as she featured in a segment filmed at her home in Surrey, where she helped launch the new 'No Butts' campaign to raise awareness about the symptoms of bowel cancer.
Eloise appeared as part of a joint effort with her relatives, Heather and Ben James, who joined Lorraine Kelly in the studio on Tuesday for an in-person interview to help launch the No Butts initiative - a campaign originally started by Deborah in 2021.
Deborah, a former teacher and campaigner who hosted the podcast You, Me and the Big C, died from bowel cancer in 2022 at 40, five years after her stage four diagnosis.
After being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 at the age of 35, Deborah became a viral sensation through her social media content as she danced her way through chemotherapy and lived with 'rebellious hope', nicknaming herself the Bowelbabe.
Marking the fifth year of the awareness campaign, Eloise and Heather discussed the 'No Butts' merchandise loo rolls, which has the words 'check your poo' printed on each sheet.
The 15-year-old called the campaign 'genius'. She said: 'You're wiping your poo with something that says check your poo, so it's like a cheeky reminder before you do it. It's quite smart actually.'
Heather and Ben James appeared in the studio where they reflected on Deborah's groundbreaking work to smash the 'taboo' of bowel cancer.
Ben, who is running the London marathon this weekend in aid of bowel cancer research, said on the show: 'Deborah was beating the drum as much as possible but it's so important to keep raising awareness and to keep the message out there.
'People still don't quite know the symptoms [of bowel cancer] and it's important to keep spreading awareness, like the No Butts campaign.'
Deborah's mother, Heather James, added: 'I think Deborah really did try and break the taboo around poo, with a happy, smiley face and dance.'
Speaking to The Sun ahead of her onscreen appearance, Eloise said: 'Mum would be chuffed I was doing this because spreading awareness is what it's all about. Mum didn't want to make it something scary, she wanted to make it something fun'.
'She made it like dances, making jokes out of it. It gets to people more than being serious, 'cause no one is going to listen to someone being serious the whole time,' she continued, before adding that 'life is just not that serious, at the end of the day'.
Eloise has starred in a short film for the show alongside her grandmother, Heather, where they reflect on some of Dame James's work.
The GCSE student points out cheeky merchandise like branded loo roll and knickers before speaking about Prince William's visit to their family home.
The future king visited in May 2022 when he 'joined us for afternoon tea and champagne' and 'not only spent a generous amount of time talking to my whole family but also honoured me with my Damehood,' Dame Deborah wrote on Instagram at the time.
She continued: 'It's quite surreal having a royal pop in at home, and yes you can imagine the cleaning antics and preparation went off the scale - but it was all irrelevant because William was so kind and he put us all at ease.
'He is clearly passionate about improving oncology outcomes as the President of the Royal Marsden.
'It was such a special day for my whole family, making memories to last a life time.'
She then joked that 'he's welcome back any time!'
True to her mother's humorous confession, Eloise remembered making meringues while her grandmother was frantically going around the house trying to tidy.
She said: 'The house was spotless but she was like, 'My house is a tip, I'm so sorry Prince William'. She spent 24 hours tidying, I don't know why she was apologising.'
Dame James also tried to speak to her children about the different types and shapes of poo - but her hilarious outfits were perhaps most memorable.
Bowel cancer kills more than 16,500 people every year, making it the second biggest cancer killer in the UK.
And while 43,000 people are diagnosed each year, the disease is treatable if caught early.
'What mum wanted was for everyone to know the truth, that it can happen to anybody. Even if you're the most healthy person in the room you've still have chance of getting it,' Eloise said.
Dame James decided to document her journey with cancer online to raise awareness of the disease and the daily plight of people living with cancer.
She went on to host the successful 'You, Me and The Big C' podcast and used her platform to raise a massive £17million for cancer research via the Bowelbabe fund.
In spring of 2022 she revealed she had entered palliative care and was going to move into her parents' home in Woking, Surrey, to spend her final days with her family around her.
Her mother said in January that Dame James would be 'up there grinning from ear to ear' after the NHS announced it would drop the bowel cancer screening age from 60.
Thanks to her campaigning, around 850,000 more people will now be included in the bowel cancer screening programme, with those aged 50 and 52 receiving kits by the end of March.
COLON CANCER: WHAT ARE THE WARNING SIGNS?
Bowel, or colorectal, cancer affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum.
Such tumors usually develop from pre-cancerous growths, called polyps.
Symptoms include:
Bleeding from the bottom
Blood in stools
A change in bowel habits lasting at least three weeks
Unexplained weight loss
Extreme, unexplained tiredness
Abdominal pain
Most cases have no clear cause, however, people are more at risk if they:
Are over 50
Have a family history of the condition
Have a personal history of polyps in their bowel
Suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn's disease
Lead an unhealthy lifestyle
Treatment usually involves surgery, and chemo- and radiotherapy.
More than nine out of ten people with stage 1 bowel cancer survive five years or more after their diagnosis.
Unfortunately, only around a third of all colorectal cancers are diagnosed at this early stage.
The majority of people come to the doctor when the disease has spread beyond the wall of the colon or rectum or to distant parts of the body, which decreasing the chance of being successfully cured of colon cancer.
According to Bowel Cancer UK figures, more than 41,200 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK.
It affects around 40 per 100,000 adults per year in the US, according to the National Cancer Institute.