Deborah James, 40, has shared a poignant health update after an operation to remove a bile duct stent “didn’t go to plan”. The mother-of-two has been living with stage four bowel cancer since she was diagnosed in 2016.
When she was diagnosed, doctors told her she may not live beyond five years, and earlier this year, a new, aggressive tumour had developed near her liver and wrapped around her bile duct.
She suffered liver failure and had a stent fitted to help the organ function again.
However, because she was so unwell, doctors had to stop chemotherapy, and as a result, Deborah’s “numbers have been creeping in the wrong direction”.
Wearing a hospital gown and cannula, she explained to her 261,000 Instagram followers that bile duct stents commonly need changing every six months because they get “blocked, sludgy, or tumours can grow in them”.
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Unfortunately, the operation didn’t go to plan and her bile duct has become “even more annoyingly complex”.
The podcast host wrote via her Instagram Stories: “The stent that was failing is out, but now we (I mean some really clever doctors!) need to decide how to get it all working again.
“Not sure what happens next, but doctors are telling me there are options- and as we all know options are good. Just got to take it a step at a time.”
In a further post on her main page, the former deputy headteacher said she was upset after she woke up from the general anaesthetic.
“I’m fully aware it’s not easy to think like this. I’ve just had a full-on cry with my nurse. But we keep ploughing on.”
Deborah has also spoken of her fears that this Christmas may be her last, and how that will affect her children Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12.
Writing in The Sun, Deborah explained that she decorates her house with extravagant Christmas knick-knacks, in the hope that they will be the “magic [she] leaves behind”.
She wrote: “If I don’t make it to next Christmas, my collection of decorations will.
“I picture my kids unpacking them together and laughing at how over the top their mum was, and how much she loved Christmas.
“For that first Christmas without me, I hope the sparkly mess will put a smile on their faces. I hope it’s a Christmas tradition they carry on.”
She also praised her husband, Seb, for holding “everything together” and thanked him for pulling her “through the darkest times”.