Mom visits Jade Goody’s grave with Christmas tree
By IANSFriday, December 25, 2009
LONDON - She was fighting to hold back her tears, but still managed a brave smile as Jackiey Budden, mother of late reality show star Jade Goody, placed a Christmas tree on her daughter’s snow-covered grave. This was her first Christmas without the bubbly, life-loving girl she adored.
Heartbroken, Jackiey braved the freezing cold Thursday to be with her daughter. She spent an hour and whispered words of love while kneeling next to the simple wooden cross marking her daughter’s grave.
The 51-year-old, who brought a miniature Christmas tree, said: “I just needed to be near my beautiful baby girl and make sure her grave was perfect for Christmas. She always loved this time of year and I couldn’t bear the thought of her not having her own tree.
“So I have this one with all the decorations and made sure everything is how Jade would want it.”
She also tended the flowers still being laid on her daughter’s grave by fans nine months after Jade’s death from cervical cancer.
Jade received the news about her illness while she was appearing on India’s version of the “Big Brother” show that made her famous. She flew home for emergency treatment.
After being told her disease was terminal, Jade admitted she had ignored a health advisory instructing her to return to hospital following abnormal results.
She died aged 27 in March. Since her death, cervical smear tests for young women have increased by 400,000. Hundreds of lives have been saved.
“Jade’s legacy lives on and is strengthened every single time a young woman goes for a smear test when she wouldn’t normally have bothered. I’m so proud of her,” said Jackiey.
She has recently spent two weeks with Jade’s children, Bobby, 6, and four-year-old Freddie, who visited Jade’s grave on Christmas day with TV presenter dad Jeff Brazier.
