Dame Deborah James’ brother Benjamin welcomes first child with wife Ashley Hall as couple name their newborn daughter after late cancer campaigner

Dame Deborah James’s younger brother Benjamin has named his firstborn after the late cancer campaigner, their mother recently revealed. 

On Sunday, Heather James took to Instagram to welcome her ‘beautiful new granddaughter’ Coralie Susan Deborah James, as she congratulated her son and his wife Ashley Hall. 

Alongside an adorable snap of baby Coralie swaddled in a blanket, Heather wrote: ‘So thrilled to welcome our beautiful new granddaughter! Coralie Susan Deborah James. 

‘Congratulations to Ben and Ashley, I know how loved Cora will be.’ 

Ashley also documented ‘two weeks of Cora’ on the social media platform, including sharing a photograph of the newborn in her car seat, as fans gushed over her ‘stunning’ name in the comments section. 

Scottish singer Natalie Rushdie also wished the couple, as she wrote: ‘Congratulations and I love her name.’ 

English presenter Gaby Roslin added: ‘Huge congratulations, she is beautiful and [I had] goosebumps when I read her gorgeous names.’ 

One fan wrote that Cora’s ‘auntie will be looking down and will be feeling so proud’ after the former deputy head teacher died on June 28, 2022, aged 40, after a five-year battle with bowel cancer. 

It comes after Benjamin and Ashley tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Barbados on April 7, 2024. 

He proposed to his long-term girlfriend weeks before Deborah’s tragic passing in 2022, with the late activist sharing the joyful news of the engagement at the time. 

Deborah revealed that even Prince William had asked Benjamin ‘why he hadn’t done it (proposed) yet’ in a post on her Instagram page.  

‘Ashley Hall and Benjamin James have finally “put a ring on it”. I cried and cried…Even Prince William asked my brother why he hadn’t done it yet,’ she wrote. 

Posting a gallery of snaps online, her caption read: ‘He finally put a ring on it! Congratulations to @benjaminrjames and @ashleyclairehall for finally getting engaged after 11 years!

‘If you ever followed my podcasts, brother banter features highly, and even Prince William joined in on the action recently!

The royal had visited the mother-of-two and her family to award her with a damehood in May that year, after she raised millions for Cancer Research UK through her BowelBabe fund.

It comes after Heather posted a heartbreaking tribute to her daughter on the third anniversary of her death last June. 

Heather’s post included pictures of Deborah at Wimbledon with her parents the previous year. 

Beginning the tribute post, the mother wrote: ‘It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years today when we held Deborah’s hand as she took her last breath. 

‘We think of you every day, remembering your enthusiasm, joy of life, wicked sense of humour, love of the family and of course that smile!’ 

 In an interview with ‘The Life of Bryony’ podcast around the same time, Dame Deborah’s siblings, Ben and Sarah Wieczorek, revealed how they dealt with the grief of losing their sister to bowel cancer. 

Sarah, her sister, told Mail columnist Bryony Gordon: ‘It’s horrible her kids have to grow up without a mum.

‘I hope the fund can support groundbreaking research that will give people like her more time – people shouldn’t be losing their mums, or daughters, sisters and friends.

‘I don’t let myself think about the fact she’s not here. I don’t want to go there… I miss her energy and the ability she had just to make things normal. Not just normal, but fun.

‘The bit that has made it easier is that she made such a statement and we’re lucky enough to still be talking about her.

‘We get to do a lot of charitable events through her: her memory is very much still alive. It feels like she’s still living, even though she’s not.’

Ben added that ‘it’s hard to look negatively across a lot of it’ despite the pain of losing his sister. 

On his grief, Ben said: ‘Obviously, it’s a c*** situation that nobody wants to be in. But honestly, it’s hard to look negatively across a lot of it.

‘Those last six to eight weeks were such a huge distraction: Debs herself said that it was one of the best times we’ve had as a family.

‘I live close to where Debs lived and often run past the house and think, I can’t believe she’s not there – that hits hard.

‘Going through cancer is a process, and you grieve before it happens – to an extent. She was pretty ill at the end, and you see it is a release.

‘We keep moving forward – I think everyone deals with it in their own way.’

After she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2016 at the age of 35, Deborah became a viral sensation for her social media content, which showed her dancing her way through chemotherapy and living with ‘rebellious hope’.

Channelling her inner Celine Dion, she began a TikTok movement of miming her way through It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, encouraging other people having cancer treatment to join in – and dress in sparkles while in hospital. 

Alongside her crusade, she was a co-host of BBC’s You, Me & The Big C podcast with Lauren Mahon and Rachel Bland, who died of breast cancer in 2018. Following her death, her husband Steve took over as a presenter.

In the last months of her life, mother-of-two Deborah launched the Bowelbabe Fund, which raised more than £11million for cancer charities.

As she spent her final days at her parents’ house in Woking, Surrey, Heather and her father Alistair helped to look after their daughter, alongside Deborah’s own children Hugo and Eloise and husband Sebastien.

In her final days, Dame Deborah released a clothing line with InTheStyle hinged on her ‘Rebellious Hope’ mantra.

She also received her Damehood – which was delivered personally by Prince William, who popped over to Woking for afternoon tea in Heather and Alistair’s garden.

When Deborah passed away, Heather posted a moving tribute to her daughter on Instagram.

Writing on her Story, she shared the post which announced the cancer campaigner’s death and wrote: ‘My heart is broken.’ In another story, she said: ‘Love you forever.’