Editorial

OUR JADE WAS NOBODY'S FOOL

27 March 2009

Jade Goody's premature parting is nothing short of tragic and like everyone in her home community we mourn her death.

A Bermondsey girl through and through, Jade was nothing if controversial, perhaps because she possessed a bare faced honesty that had to be admired. Her short life was a rollercoaster of amazing bouts of idolization, misunderstandings and eventual respect.

Growing up on the Dickens Estate, the people who knew her intimately talk affectionately of a little girl and teenager who was always going to be famous. The life and soul of any party, the young Jade Goody was no wallflower and when she hit the nation's screens in Big Brother, this gobby blonde from Bermondsey was bound to be a hit.

As her ex-boyfriend described her in this paper today, and in her own words, she was like Marmite - 'you either loved her or hated her and so many people absolutely loved her.'  The attributes that made Jade such a media figure were not new to her upon becoming a celebrity. Her friends talk of a loud and upfront youngster, very protective of her pals and extremely ambitious.

Yet, also of a determination to succeed that was matched with a huge helping of compassion for those that she loved and an extraordinary ability to see things straight, beyond all the hype.
The most used phrase to describe her is 'Jade saw things as they were and was not afraid to say it as she saw it'.

The 27-year-old mum of two might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but how much of that was down to the media game she was in? Was it Jade the person or the cult of celebrity that people disliked? Jade, despite the outward gaffs, was no one's fool and made more of her chance at celebrity status than anyone one else. What's more she did not take the status and complain about it afterwards.

Unfounded reports of a statue in Bermondsey for Jade, of her lying in state at Albin’s funeral home and the Dickens Estate being renamed the Goody Estate would no doubt have had her laughing. Her family has said that her funeral is open to the world, as that is how she lived her life and they are right, she did.

And tragically her battle with cancer did the most to show us just what a star this young woman was. Never one to take anything lying down, Jade used her illness to highlight the importance of early screening for cervical cancer in best way she knew how, with no holds barred, upfront and honestly.

She showed just how wretched it is for a mum of two little young boys to be taken from this earth by a disease that no one can escape, no matter how rich or famous you become. And she did it her way - and we hope that her work will pay off, as that would be her greatest legacy. 

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