IT is nearly five months since Heather James kissed her daughter goodbye for the last time.
And not a day goes by without a reminder of her eldest child, Dame Deborah James.
The 40-year-old captured the hearts of the nation in the weeks before she died of Stage 4 bowel cancer on June 28.
Thanks to her efforts in raising awareness, in the past year 2.8million people were tested for the disease, data published last month shows – up almost a fifth from 2.32million in 2018/19.
And figures from the NHS last week showed record numbers of cancer cases are being caught early, with 56.7 per cent of cases – 100,461 out of 177,180 in a sample – found at stage one or two in 2021-22.