Red flag symptoms that led to Deborah James discovering she had bowel cancer

Deborah James has raised more than £3m after she revealed that she is receiving end-of-life care for bowel cancer. She was diagnosed with the disease back in 2016 and has been raising awareness of the cancer through her writing, broadcasting and social media.

Nearly 200,000 people have donated to her fundraiser. She has presented the BBC podcast 'You, Me and the Big C' as well as that she has written a best selling book called 'F*** you cancer'.

When launching her fundraiser she said: "My rollercoaster ride is coming to an end very soon" and her "body simply isn't playing ball". Back in 2017 whilst writing in her blog she shared the symptoms that led to her diagnosis reports Wales Online .

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She was 35 years-old, a vegetarian, not overweight and a non-smoker. Despite all of that she was diagnosed with stage three bowel cancer.

The former school deputy head wrote in her blog in January 2017 of the symptoms that led to telling a doctor she thought she might have bowel cancer. Despite being 35 years old, a vegetarian, not overweight and not a smoker, she was ultimately diagnosed with a stage 3 bowel cancer.

Deborah wrote that she was initially told by her GP she must have IBS because her blood tests and stool sample came back fine. "And yet I was still losing weight, passing blood , going what felt like 100 times per day and feeling shattered. I knew there was something wrong with me," she wrote.

It was only when she paid privately for a colonoscopy that her "ugly 5.5cm cancerous, ulcerated tumour" was discovered and her treatment began. Deborah, a mum of two children, Hugo and Eloise, who were 9 and 7 when she was first