I wonder if people are following the progress of Jade Goody’s cancer battle out of a sense of morbid curiousity rather than genuine concern or interest…?

Now, sadly, she is no longer fighting a battle as such – she is simply marking her time since being told her cancer is terminal. I don’t know – or even care – what your opinion is about Jade ( and lets face it, you either liked her or you couldn’t stand the girl) but you have to admire the way she has faced this tragedy.

She has copped a lot of criticism and snide remarks for having her illness made the subject of a documented series but she is in a very powerful, if unenviable, position in doing this.

The cases of young women attending their clinic and GP for smear tests ever since Jade’s story was made public has increased by a fantastic 20 per cent – and somewhere in that 20 per cent of young females would have been another certain percentage who would have faced the same fate as Jade is facing now had it not been for the influence Jade has had on the issue of cervical cancer.

This disease is killing young women – some very young women at that – Jade is only 27 years old and is dying from the most needless cancer of all.

I have watched her series to date and it is heartbreaking; from my point of view not just painful seeing a young and vital woman racked with pain and sickness – but seeing a young mother of two little boys gradually losing her grasp on life. There is no better reason on earth to live than for your children and no more agonising thing to do than know they will have to live on without you.

This Sunday Jade will marry Jack Tweed and good luck to her. Personally I have a cynical opinion of Mr Tweed – on why he was so hesitant to commit to her until it was announced to Jade that she only had months to live at the most…then he proposes.

Again, I can be cynical…

But I sincerely hope Jade finds some respite from her pain on Sunday and some happiness in this dark time for her. I saw her on TV this morning leaving hospital and being transported on one of those chair car lifts all hooked up to painkillers. It just goes to show that when it really comes down to it, the only things on this planet that matter are the people you love and having the health to enjoy it.

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