Dame Deborah James has shared pictures of an evening at the opera with her husband, five years after she visited the same place when she was recently diagnosed with cancer.
The 40-year-old said goodbye to her online followers a month ago, revealing that she was receiving home care for her stage four bowel cancer and did not know “how much time she had left”.
But on Saturday, she and her husband Sebastien Bowen saw La Boheme at Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex.
Posting photos of the trip on Instagram, he said: “Another day, bring another excuse to spend half exhausting me getting dressed to go to one of my favorite places !!!! @glyndebourne to see #laboheme- But okay worth it.
“Thank you @glyndebourne for being so kind and welcoming tonight; doing all this in a wheelchair is definitely a new challenge to learn!”
He posted comparative images of the couple on the same site in 2017.
“I can’t believe I was last here 5 years ago this week, scared, newly diagnosed, just trying to do the same thing I’m doing now, taking things one day at a time !!” he wrote.
Dame Deborah has raised £ 6.7m for her “bowel babe” fundraiser, which she launched with her May Instagram post revealing that her body had “stopped playing ball”.
Prince William gave her a wife at home in the following days, which she said was one of the most “surreal” experiences of her life.
Image: She and her husband Sebastien spent the night at the opera. Image: @Bowelbabe / Instagram Image: Dame Deborah and her husband Sebastien. Image: @Bowelbabe / Instagram
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m hooked”
Detailing his physical condition, he said on Saturday: “But don’t get excited!
“I thought it would take me longer to get ready and organize than the time it takes anywhere !!
“Getting dressed is tiring, organizing medications is tiring, moving extra, traveling, wondering what mood your stomach is in, it’s all real!”
Image: The couple set out to take selfies on the grounds of Glyndebourne. Image: @Bowelbabe / Instagram Image: on Instagram she noted that in the older photo her husband “still looked stylish.” Image: @Bowelbabe / Instagram
But he concluded by saying that the visit was “a kind of brazenness” that is still alive while “two fingers for everything” die.
Closing the post, he 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 her partners Rachael Bland and Lauren Mahon documented their cancer experiences.
Bland died in 2018 and has been replaced on the show by her husband Steve.