"Is this the first time she's " worked" for years ?"
No. She presents a Sunday morning radio show for Radio Berkshire. Her work (I won't put it unnecessarily in inverted commas) has been quite extensive but less so since her husband died in March 2016. But she has been involved in writing and occasional TV appearances. She was in panto in York over last Christmas, she took part in Celebrity Master Chef and also appeared in a series a appeared in a series "Celebrity Carry on Barging" where she, Nigel Havers, Lorraine Chase and Simon Callow took two narrow boats on a tour on some of the UK's canals.
Quite why you felt the need to ask whether she had "worked" recently is a little strange, Anne. You clearly believe that anything she does cannot remotely be described as work, but as a 58 year old woman who was recently widowed she appears to be trying her best to get on with her life despite being devastated at the loss of her husband. Perhaps it's because she and her husband were "lucky" to be so well off. Rather like many, the harder they worked the luckier they seemed to get and Debbie is obviously trying to continue her winning streak now she's alone.