Deborah James obtains her Damehood at a ceremony

Deborah James obtains her Damehood at a ceremony held in her garden over ‘tea and champagne’.

On Friday, Prince William honored Dame Deborah James with a Damehood in recognition of her persistent advocacy and fundraising efforts, which have resulted in £5 million being given to cancer research in just four days.

The cancer-stricken mother-of-two, 40, posted many photos of the Duke of Cambridge with her and her family to her Instagram page, describing the encounter as “surreal.”

She informed her 630,000 Twitter followers that William was “nice” and “made everyone feel at ease,” and that he was “welcome back any time.”

‘Prince William truly came to our family house today!’ wrote Dame Deborah. I am ecstatic that he came to join us for afternoon tea and champagne, where he not only spent time speaking with my entire family but also bestowed my Damehood.’

She described the experience of having a royal ‘drop in’ as bizarre, and quipped that the cleaning activities prior to his arrival were “off the scale.”

‘But it didn’t matter since William was so nice and made us all feel at ease,’ she continued.

‘As President of the Royal College of Physicians, he is clearly committed to improving oncology results.’