Deborah James' mum recalls the moment Prince William visited her home

Dame Deborah James’ mother reveals she fretted about ‘holes in the sofa’ and weeded the garden at 11pm the night before Prince William visited to award her daughter a damehood

Dame Deborah James’ mother recalled Prince William’s visit to Surrey home
On the podcast Open with Emma Campbell, Heather James opened up
She explained the hectic days leading up to the Prince Of Wales’ visit
She joked: ‘My initial thought was the lounge needs redecorating’

Dame Deborah James’ mother recalled the ‘surreal’ moment Prince William visited her home to award her cancer campaigner daughter a damehood before she died.

Speaking on the podcast Open with Emma Campbell, Heather James recalled the hectic days leading up to the Prince Of Wales’ visit to her home in Surrey.

Heather, whose daughter Dame Deborah raised £7 million for cancer research before she died last year from stage 4 bowel cancer, said: ‘My initial thought was the lounge needs redecorating.’

Dame Deborah James’ mother recalled the ‘surreal’ moment Prince William (right) visited her home to award the Bowel Babe a damehood before she passed

She revealed the comical behind the scenes moments as the family got ready for the royal visitor.

Heather, who is also dubbed ‘Bowel Gran’ said: ‘I am quite an organiser and I didn’t have enough time to organise anything. By nine, ten o’clock the night before it was confirmed that Prince William will be coming the next afternoon.

‘My initial thought was the lounge needs redecorating. Well, that’s not going to be done. Oh look at the holes in the sofa. Well, let’s just throw some more blankets over them.’

‘We knew it was going to be forecast for good weather, so I think my husband and Debrah and I said well lets all go outside, and my husband goes “Well I haven’t cut the grass”. You know, silly things.’

Speaking on the podcast Open with Emma Campbell, Heather James recalled the hectic days leading up to the Prince Of Wales’ visit

She went onto explain that she and her grandson Hugo, 14, went out to weed the garden at 11pm at night before realising it was ‘ridiculous’ and they decided to stop.

Elsewhere in the episode she said the family scrambled to get clothes arranged for the children last minute.

She said: ‘I was extremely calm until the next morning when I realised that the children didn’t have any clothes here, so Eloise ended up wearing some of mummy’s clothes and we pinned it with safety pins so that was fine.’

‘Ben had to go and get some trousers for Hugo but everyone forgot the shoes until just before Prince William came so he wore Alastair’s with tissue paper at the top.’

Deborah James shared a photo of her meeting with Prince William as the royal presented her with her Damehood

Heather went onto reveal that Deborah requested traditional ‘cucumber sandwiches’ and ‘salmon sandwiches’ ahead of the royals visit.

After getting everyone else ready and cleaning the house Heather revealed she hadn’t event had. chance to shower when she was told the prince was on route.

Saying: ‘I hadn’t showered, I hadn’t done my hair, and I hadn’t got time now, so just stick some clothes on, I didn’t even know what I was going to wear I just stuck on the first dress, couldn’t do my hair, shoved some lipstick on and said look lets just get some champagne.’

Last year Deborah’s husband Sebastien, 42, said Prince William ‘felt like a friend, but he was the future king’ and was ‘so relaxed’.

‘Deborah had a glass of champagne, a glass of wine and a glass of sherry in front of her,’ he told The Times.

Describing the visit, Sebastien, 42, said Prince William ‘felt like a friend, but he was the future king’ and was ‘so relaxed’

The father-of-two (pictured with his family), who shared Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, with Deborah, explained how he stopped working to spend as much time with his wife as possible after she stopped active treatment and started to receive end-of-life care at her parents’ house in Woking

BOWEL CANCER: THE SYMPTOMS YOU SHOULDN’T IGNORE

Bowel, or colorectal, cancer affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum.

Such tumours 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 10 people with stage one bowel cancer survive five years or more after their diagnosis.

This drops significantly if it is diagnosed in later stages.

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.

‘She hadn’t been allowed a drink for months and the first thing William said was, “I’m glad to see you are triple parked”.’

He then went on to explain the ‘powerful advice’ Prince William gave to son Hugo, 14, and daughter Eloise, 12.

Sebastien said: ‘He’s obviously been through similar grief with the loss of his mother so he gave powerful advice to the children that will stay with them forever.’

Her husband also revealed how she was ‘paralysed from the waist down’ in the final days of her life – before she ‘deteriorated’ very quickly and ‘slipped away.’

Her widower explained how he and his children took on the care for Deborah at her parents home of Woking.

The father-of-two said his wife became ‘so weak’ and ‘frustrated’ because she had been ‘fiercely independent’.

He said on the Sunday, Hugo ‘helped her get dressed’ and they ‘had a good chat’ before the family had lunch, adding: ‘Deborah was being as bossy as ever, telling us what to do. Then at teatime she started to slip away; she was floating in and out of consciousness.’

Deborah, a former deputy headteacher, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016, before launching a podcast You, Me and the Big C, to raise awareness about the illness.

She raised more than £7million for her Bowelbabe fund, set up to fund clinical trials, through various collaborations, including a clothing range, a rose named after her and her book How to Live When You Could Be Dead.

Speaking to The Sun, the late campaigner’s husband said: ‘I’m so proud of her. I’m in awe of everything she did to raise awareness, and the legacy she has left behind.’

After her diagnosis, the former headteacher became a co-host of the BBC’s You, Me and The Big C podcast, and used her social media platforms to educate people about the symptoms of bowel cancer under her nickname, The Bowel Babe.

This year, the family accepted an honorary degree on Dame Deborah’s behalf from the Institute of Cancer Research.

They were accompanied by Dame Deborah’s You, Me & The Big C co-hosts, Lauren Mahon and Steve Bland, who also received degrees for their outstanding contribution to raising awareness of living with cancer.

Posting photos of the graduation ceremony on Instagram, Heather wrote: ‘Today was a bittersweet day.

‘Deborah and her colleagues Lauren and Steve from You, Me & The Big C were awarded honorary degrees by The Institute of Cancer Research for their outstanding contributions to raising awareness of living with cancer and the importance of cancer research.’