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Rose Hill & Abbie Meehan

BBC's Deborah James breaks down as she shares 'hard conversations' with children

Television presenter Deborah James appeared on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning as she discussed the "hard conversations" had with her children about her death.

The 40-year-old was diagnosed with a severe case of bowel cancer in 2016, and has been heavily involved in charitable work to raise money for cancer research, the Mirror reports.

Deborah has also been very involved in ITV's No Butts campaign, which aims to raise awareness on how to spot bowel cancer early.

READ MORE - Katie Price chauffeured by funeral directors around Scotland after Edinburgh visit

At the beginning of the week, Deborah made the heart-breaking announcement that she will be returning home to receive end of life care, after leaving hospice care.

She will spend her last days surrounded by family and friends, and recalled difficult conversations she had with her kids surrounding death.

Speaking on the programme on Wednesday morning, she said: "I've always said I don't want to leave any stone unturned - I don't think there isn't a stone we haven't tried to unturn to make my liver work again in order to get my body functioning.

"Unfortunately I'm exhausted - I'm absolutely exhausted. We've got to the point now where I can't really do anything more."

Deborah spoke about how her children would be cared for after she was gone. (BBC)

She continued as she began to break down in tears: "I have a really loving family who I adore. Honestly, they're incredible and all I knew I wanted was to come here and be able to relax knowing that everything was OK.

"I've had some really hard conversations during the last week. You think, 'Gosh, how can anyone have those conversations?' and then you find yourself in the middle of them. And people are very nice, but you're talking about your own death and I've had five years to prepare for my death."

Deborah also noted that she didn't have a "grudge" to hold at life, and was not "angry that [she] hasn't tried everything."

She added: "I don't feel like we've run out of drugs but we're still not - I'm still not there yet."

As Deborah tried to settle her tears, the interviewer sympathetically said: "I know it's not easy."

"It's hard," she replied. "It's really hard. The thing that I know, because I trust my husband - he's just the most wonderful man and so is my family and I know that my kids are going to be more than looked after and surrounded by love.

Deborah with her son Hugo and daughter Eloise. (Instagram)

"You always want to know as a mother - are your kids going to be OK? And my kids are going to be fine. But it doesn't mean I'm not going to miss every chance I could have had with them."

After her tragic announcement on Monday, Deborah has so far managed to raise a whopping £2 million in just 48 hours as she asked her followers to "buy her a drink" to help donate money to Cancer Research UK.

Deborah continued: "I always knew that there was one thing I wanted to do before I died.

"What I really want to happen is that I don't want any other Deborahs to have to go through this and I want - we know that if we catch cancer early we can cure it. We know that much more investment needs to take place for cancer.

"We know that we have the skills and the passion in the UK to do so. But I just feel that was still need that reminder and that boost and money.

"So before I died, one thing I knew I wanted to do was set up a fund that could continue working on some of the things that gave me life."

She added: "I had a figure in my mind of quarter of a million because I thought that would be enough to fund a couple of projects across charities I wanted to fund. But 24 hours to do £1million is absolutely mind-blowing and I can't thank people enough for their generosity because it just means so much to me.

"It makes me feel utterly loved, but it makes me feel like we're in it til the end together and we all want to make a difference and say, 'Screw you cancer, we can do better. We can do better for people and we just need to show it who's boss."

Opening up about how she had been surrounded by her family, she laughed: "I've been having sleepovers with my brother and sister in our 40s - never left alone, which I think is great. It's like being kids again. I can't think of a better way to go."

Our thoughts go out to Deborah and her family at this tragic time, and you can donate to Cancer Research UK here.

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