As a former media student, I was always told to never judge a story or person on a so-called character flaw, in the case of Jade Goody I had done just that. When she first entered the public eye as a contestant on the 2002 version of Channel 4’s ‘Big Brother’ , Jade Cerisa Lorraine Goody was instantly dubbed as ’stupid’ or ‘dumb’ because of various comments she came out with during her stay in the BB house. Most famously her comment, ‘Where’s East Angular [sic] though? I thought that was abroad’.
From this point the British press began a passage of ridicule that would follow her for the rest of her days. This was enforced by her other antics which included cavorting naked while drunk and also committing a sexual act with fellow housemate PJ. Despite this, Jade seemed to have some of the public behind her as she finished in 4th place. Her in-house exploits provided fame for the dental nurse from Bermondsey who then went on to release various DVDs, her autobiography entitled ‘Jade: My Autobiography’ and the fragrance ‘Shh … Jade Goody’
She competed in the 2006 London Marathon only to collapse at the 21 mile mark, she claimed to have not prepared for the event properly but went on to raise over £550 for the NSPCC.
In the following months she released her autobiography, ‘Jade -My Autobiography’ and created a fragrance called ‘Shh…Jade Goody’ which allowed her to gain further prominence in the public eye.
At this point, my opinion of her was that she was a celebrity who was trying to create a future for her children, her sons Bobby and Freddie born in 2003 and 2004 with her then partner Jeff Brazier.
Things were going good for her all in all until 2007 swung around to deal her a major blow that would change her life dramatically. It came in January when she took part in the celebrity version of Big Brother with her mother Jackiey Budden and partner Jack Tweed and allegedly voiced racist comments to Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty which included the use of the phrase ‘Shilpa Poppadom and caused public outcry against Goody and fellow housemates Jo O’Meara and Danielle Lloyd. Channel4 was barraged with complaints and many people (myself included) turned on Jade in terms of opinion. Shetty later revealed that she didn’t not believe it was a racial slur.
But this was not enough to stop Jade’s reputation and her product sales going into freefall across the year. In order to try and salvage some reputation she entered the Indian version of Big Brother – ‘Big Boss’ in 2008 after releasing her second fragrance ‘Controversial’. This entry into reality would be the most significant as two days into her experience she was informed that she had cervical cancer and as such withdrew from the programme. She released a second autobiography entitled – ‘Jade: Catch A Falling Star’ and went on to appear on in documentaries such as ‘Living with Jade Goody’ and Jade’s cancer battle’. Her status in the public eye had skyrocketed but there was mixed opinions as some sympathised with her struggle while others believed it to be some sort of comeuppance.
Jade struggled on despite negative press and attempts were made to try to cure her cancer but to no avail. She had planned her funeral and went on to marry partner Jack Tweed in a ceremony on February 22nd 2009. The press continued to publish daily stories on her which created some negativity with the public with some asking why she was seemingly put on a pedestal when other cancer sufferers were going through the same sort of situation alone.
As she entered this month it was becoming more and more possible that her final day was on the horizon. She was christened with her sons on March 7th in what became her final public appearance. As a mother of two young sons, Mother’s Day would have been a date high in her calendar but sadly she was not able to spend the day with Bobby and Freddie as she passed away in her sleep in the early hours with family and friends at her bedside. She is due to be buried at a publicly attended funeral on April 4th.
Jade Goody was someone who made some people happy and some people angry but she has left a legacy to this country in the way of the topic of smear tests for cervical cancer. She herself had a test before entering Big Brother in 2002 which was her first of four cancer scares.
The issue of smear tests has prompted a review by the NHS which Jade herself said she was immensely proud to have influenced.
In the week since her death, I have noticed that the reaction is slightly gender spread with the majority of the female population behind her in tribute groups and respect. The male population I have not seen the same reaction from but reasons for this are unknown to me.
Personally, Jade was not a woman i admired nor liked during her life for various reasons which i have covered but after her death i still am not what you could call a fan but there is slight admiration for her struggle and that her legacy may help to prevent future cases of cervical cancer or if not at least promote smear tests at a younger age in order to protect the future of the UK’s female population.
N.B – Comments on this blog are welcome but i will not tolerate any offensive or comedic remarks.
