Dame Deborah James has shared pictures of an evening at the opera with her husband – five years after she visited the same venue when she was freshly diagnosed with cancer.
The 40-year-old bid her online followers goodbye a month ago, revealing she was receiving at home hospice care for her stage four bowel cancer and did not know “how long she had left”.
But on Saturday she and her husband Sebastien Bowen watched La Boheme at Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex.
Posting pictures of the trip on Instagram she said: “Another day, brings another excuse to spend half of it exhausting myself getting dressed up to go to one of my favourite places!!!! @glyndebourne to watch #laboheme- But totally worth it.
“Thank you @glyndebourne for being so lovely and welcoming tonight -doing all this in a wheelchair is certainly a new challenge to learn!”
She posted comparison pictures of the pair of them at the same venue in 2017.
“I can’t believe I was last here 5 years ago this week – scared, newly diagnosed, just trying to do the same as I’m doing now – taking things one day at a time!!,” she wrote.
Dame Deborah has raised £6.7m for her ‘bowel babe’ fund, which she launched with her May Instagram post that revealed her body had “stopped playing ball”.
She was given a damehood at home by Prince William in the days following, which she said was one of the most “surreal” experiences of her life.
Image: She and husband Sebastien spent the night at the opera. Pic: @Bowelbabe/Instagram
Image: Dame Deborah and husband Sebastien. Pic: @Bowelbabe/Instagram
‘Be under no illusion, I’m knackered’
Detailing her physical state, she said on Saturday: “But be under no illusion! I’m knackered!
“I’ve worked out it takes me longer to get ready and organised to go than the time I actually last anywhere!!
“Getting dressed is tiring, getting meds organised is tiring, the extra moving, the travel, the wondering what mood your stomach is in – its all real!”
Image: The couple posed for selfies in the grounds of Glyndebourne. Pic: @Bowelbabe/Instagram
Image: On Instagram she noted that in the older pic her husband ‘still looked dapper’. Pic: @Bowelbabe/Instagram
But she concluded by saying that the visit was a “kind of cheeky ‘still living whilst dying’ two fingers up to it all”.
Signing off the post she used the hashtags #aintdeadyet and #onedayatatime.
Image: Deborah James last September
Dame Deborah was diagnosed in December 2016 and rose to fame with her podcast You Me and the Big C, where she and fellow hosts Rachael Bland and Lauren Mahon documented their experiences of cancer.
Bland died in 2018 and has been replaced on the show by her husband Steve.
