British reality TV star Jade Goody made final preparations for her wedding Sunday after being told by doctors last week that her cancer is terminal.
Goody, 27 is scheduled to marry her boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, in Hatfield Heath, Essex, east of London, UK media report. Goody’s four bridesmaids were seen with the TV star Saturday, wearing plastic bald caps in a show of solidarity at the impact of her chemotherapy treatment. The wedding dress, which media reports say includes a pouch to hold Goody’s medication, has been donated by Harrods owner Mohamed al Fayed. The wedding has attracted massive interest in the UK due to Goody’s high profile, with TV and magazine rights already sold. Goody has two sons, Bobby, five, and Freddie, four, by former boyfriend and TV host Jeff Brazier. Goody, who was initially diagnosed with cervical cancer last summer, has told British media that she wants to leave her children financially secure. Watch Jade Goody’s wedding preparations » In the UK some critics have attacked the decision to sell rights to the media for what may be Goody’s final weeks. But Max Clifford, the couple’s publicist, told ITN: “I think they’ve [the media and Goody] exploited each other. Both have benefitted. In Jane’s own words, she’s loved the last 7 years. They’ve been wonderful. All the people’s she’s met, all the things she’s done.
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Background: Cancer
“Ironcially, a big part of what she’s doing now is to fund her children’s education. To give them the education she never had.” On Friday the UK’s Ministry of Justice said it would allow Tweed, who was jailed in September 2008 for assault, to spend his wedding night with his bride, the Press Association reported. “We are absolutely thrilled,” the agency reported Clifford as saying. “It will be the dream finish to her dream day, and it makes so much difference. “Our heartfelt thanks from Jade and from Jack for allowing him to stay the evening in these very special circumstances.” Jack Straw, the UK Justice Secretary said: “It is crucial that offenders are treated equally within the rules regardless of the publicity surrounding their case but I was satisfied that it was reasonable to allow this” in comments reported by PA. Tweed, who was released early from jail in January, has to wear a tag and is subject to a 1900 GMT curfew. “We’ll get married if I have to drag her wheeelchair down the aisle,” he told ITN last week. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in comments reported by PA earlier in the week, said: “I think everybody is sad at the tragedy that’s befallen Jade Goody. “Everyone who suffers cancer has the thoughts of me and I think the whole country over what they’ve got to go through.” Watch report on reality TV star Jade Goody » Goody sprung to fame during her first appearance in Big Brother in 2002, before going on to launch a range of her own products and host television shows. But her return to the house in 2007, on the celebrity edition of the show, ended in ignominy, after her taunting of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty outraged viewers and resulted in more than 40,000 complaints.
However, in August 2008 she accepted an offer to go on the Indian version of Big Brother. But two days into that she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and flew home.
