Deborah James has spoke about the heartbreak of losing her podcast co-host and close friend, Rachael Bland, to cancer last month, praising her for her 'upbeat positivity'.
The journalist, who currently has stage four bowel cancer, appeared on Lorraine this morning and revealed that 'it breaks her heart' to see pictures of her late friend.
Rachael passed away at the beginning of September from a rare form of breast cancer. The pair, along with Lauren Mahon, hosted Radio 5 Live's You, Me and the Big C where they openly discussed living with cancer.
Deborah opened up about how much she misses her friend and how she plans to carry on her legacy.
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She said: "I miss her so much, even just looking at those photographs it breaks my heart actually.
"But what we did together was, we put cancer on prime time, and I'm so proud to have done that with her and her legacy and what we started, we're going to carry on with it.
"It really annoys me, that idea that you have to fight you cancer and Rachael is prime example of this.
"She was the most positive, upbeat and healthy person I can think of, yet she died because of cancer.
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"As Rachael said, she was taking me onwards with my journey, she basically said, 'You wipe your tears and you get on with it."
She added: "You have to laugh otherwise you'll have to cry and you make the most of the hand you've been dealt."
Deborah is currently undergoing treatment for her bowel cancer and discussed how people with cancer should be described as 'living with it' rather than 'fighting it'.
Deborah was on the show to promote her new book F*ck You Cancer, which she admits she didn't expect to be published.
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She wrote it in one of her "darkest moments" in chemotherapy, and even asked her children to write something in it as well.
She added: "I wrote this not thinking I'd be alive to see it published... I woke up from an operation to find an email suggesting I go for a meeting about writing a book.
"And I thought, 'No that's something I'm going to do it in the future, but I woke up with a collapsed lung and realised there might not be a future.
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"I started writing in hospital and wrote the whole book nine months ago, when I was in the dark depths of chemotherapy so it's really emotional to see that."
Rachael's last wishes were revealed in a heartbreaking final podcast she spoke about how she wanted to spend as much valuable time as possible with her three-year-old son Freddie and her husband Steve.
She also spoke about how she felt about dying and how she shared emotional moments with Steve.
Featured Image Credit: ITV/Lorraine
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