Dame Deborah James has revealed the moment she had a "gut instinct that something wasn't right" as she spoke out about her bowel cancer diagnosis.
Dame Deborah was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 and has since kept her Instagram followers up to date with her treatments and day-to-day life to raise awareness about the signs of bowel cancer.
She is currently receiving end-of-life care at her parent’s home in Woking.
Dame Deborah James
Instagram
Dame Deborah 2019
Ian West
Speaking out on her diagnosis, Dame Deborah explained how it was "last thing she was expecting”.
"I started going to poo – we need to say that – eight times a day. And I used to be a once-a-day kind of girl.
"Then I started getting really tired and I remember drinking loads of cups of coffee just to try and keep myself awake.
"Then I started losing loads of weight and I started having blood in my poo,” she told GP Dr Tosin Ajayi-Sotubo on GP E4’s Embarrassing Bodies.
The 40-year-old said it was that moment when she had a "gut instinct that something wasn't right".
It comes just days after Dame Deborah joked that she will work her way through every cocktail "before I’m gone!”
Taking to Instagram, Dame Deborah shared a photo of a Sex on the Beach cocktail, writing alongside it: “Yes that is Archers! And yes I did grow up as Archers and lemonade being a stable college social drink!
"Today’s ‘sundowner’ treat of Choice! ‘Sex on the Beach!’. Maybe I should just call this working my way through all old school cocktails day by day before I’m gone!”