Jade Goody died in her sleep today following a public battle with cancer, her publicist Max Clifford said.The reality TV star died with her mother Jackiey Budden at her side at her home in Upshire, Essex, at 3.14am on Mother’s Day.
Jade Goody waves to the camera
Referring to how her public battle with cancer has raised awareness of the disease, Mr Clifford said: “I think she’s going to be remembered as a young girl who has, and who will, save an awful lot of lives.
“She was a very, very brave girl.
“And she faced her death in the way she faced her whole life – full on, with a lot of courage.”
Mr Clifford said he hoped Goody’s family would now be left in peace to grieve.
“I think she’s going to be remembered as a young girl who has, and who will, save an awful lot of lives” says Clifford, but will she? Will her legacy be to raise the profile of cervical cancer, to help this disease become a must-do, must-have medical test that will be free?
Will there be a foundation like the Marie Keating Foundation set up to help advise, support and educate women into what warning signs they should be looking for and what they do if they find it? Will the government decide that this very public death is something they should be dealing with other than sending faces to the funeral and say that this one more death is too many?
Will red tops like the Sun and Star, tabloids like the Daily Mail and magazines like Hello, Heat and OK decide to put their advertising revenues behind a big campaign to force change, to change policy, to invest in the research that is needed to help women not just in England but around the world?
Will her family come together to realise that their Jade has given them the opportunity to become ambassadors for cancer research and behave appropriately, seeking headlines for public appearances rather than drunken ones, courting publicity not for themselves but for the millions of people worldwide that they could help and will they strive to use the money raised recently in a responsible manner for Bobby and Freddy and shield them from the mawkish sentimentality that could follow them and threaten to disrupt their already different lives?
Or will it be yet another big gaudy public display of “Ah wasn’t she great despite it all, God help her husband and the two boys but do you remember what she said that time and how she got her tits out in the Big Brother House” and she’ll become a Madeline McCann type tabloid feature - only referenced on the anniversary and when they need to fill column inches?
I hope she finds peace. I hope her family do the right thing. I hope Max Clifford, above all people, leaves her alone.
She’ll be forgotten.
Looks like OK! got the timing spot on.
I’ve avoided saying anything on this so far, even though I got an abusive mail from someone about my opinions on the radio show (turned out it was Ian Dempsey!)
It’s always terrible when anyone that young dies of cancer, I can understand her want to take care of her children financially, of course. However I think people’s obsession with her death is morbid and incredibly distatsteful. They watch the show, buy the magazines and newspapers like it’s a plot in a soap.
The media have a lot to answer for in using the last few weeks of someone’s life to make cash, whether she wanted to be a part of it or not.
The story about the increase in awareness of cervical cancer among young women is something they parade as a shield to give themselves a shard of protection.
There’s no dignity of any kind left surrounding human misery as if we ever thought there was.
Good post. I sincerely hope her legacy of increased awareness of cancer which has prompted many women to take action that may prolong their lives will continue and not be forgotten like yesterday’s news.
http://beyondbreastcancer.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/jade-goody-dies-on-mothers-day/
It’s not so much whether she will be forgotten, but whether she will
be remembered and how.
A couple of points.
Why the need to ‘provide for her children’ in such a manner? I have friends (too many, unfortunately) who lost a parent or indeed parents at an early age. They didn’t have £2m-odd to rely on to provide for their futures – they had whatever modest sums their parents had worked for to leave for them. Jade did not need to go to such ends to ‘provide’ for her children’s futures, unless she was adamant that designer clothing and public schooling in the UK was an absolute necessity. By all accounts, Jade wasn’t exactly in financial ruin, and had quite a fortune built up from previous pimping of her wares (perfumes/glossy spreads/Living TV deals etc.) that would have provided for her sons’ futures in more than adequate fashion. Let’s be clear here. Jade was not a celebrity, she was an ordinary girl… but her actions have just made the future even more difficult for the (ordinary) children she leaves behind, oblivious little boys who will now be hunted and photographed by the tabs and will have to (without choice) live her life beyond the grave. I can just see the “Freddie cries in playground missing Mummy” headlines now. They could have been allowed to have their own private lives, getting their own jobs and had the chance to provide for their own celebrity, should they so choose.
Secondly, Jade wasn’t someone we ‘knew’, she was just plonked in front of us to gawp and stare at. Think of the other faceless stats, those who’ll be told their clock is going to race that little bit faster against their will from today or tomorrow because of their cancer diagnosis. If we needed a celeb(robot)y rolled out on a stretcher, gaunt and pale to remind us of the horrors of cancer, then I don’t know if words will ever be fabricated to describe how messed up we’ve become and how far we have to go.
Finally- I agree she chose this publicity etc. but it’s an indictment on the media (or certain strands of said group) that they courted her approach with such glee. The programming of such a macabre, personal milestone in the lives of those who loved Jade was just inexplicably wrong. At the risk of sounding arrogant and condescending, the girl wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, and although a brilliant media strategist (or perhaps the embodiment of Max Clifford’s own expertise), needed guidance and support through personal choices in life (who doesn’t!). Living TV sought out this disturbing display, knowing Jade would never say no. I know some think, “Ooh, she’s smarter than she looks”, and yes, she probably was in many regards - but not in affairs of the heart. She was the space in between the thinking and the doing, there was little concentration or contemplation in what she did (BB outbursts come to mind: kebabs, anyone?). Whatever your opinion on *her* life choices, we must agree that she made those decisions for herself: but why, oh why, did nobody intervene in the meanwhile to quantify the effects on the little boys? It reflects so poorly on us as a society and the media we endure/applaud/see through.
And I’m sorry, if she was allowed to live her final hours like that and subject thousands of grieving/cancer-battling families to such pain on camera, whether it be forcing them to relive the pain they’ve already experienced or needlessly exposing them to what pain they should be anticipating, then Rick or anyone else should be allowed to comment on whether we think the past few weeks have been appropriate for human consumption. Jade, we ate you up and spit you out, may you rest in peace and may your boys know no ‘reality’ other than that of solace in comfort and privacy.
I think my dad put it quite aptly this morning when he said ‘We’ve had Sky news on for 20 minutes now, is there not anything else going on in the world this morning?’
wow, scary - I am almost the same age as Jade Goody