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Thousands farewell Goody

Thousands of people turned out to bid farewell to reality TV star Jade Goody yesterday, a fittingly public end for a woman whose life and death were pored over by Britain's celebrity-obsessed media.

The one-time dental assistant, who died last month of cervical cancer aged 27, found fame and fortune as a contestant on the popular reality television show "Big Brother."

The mother of two's decision to battle cancer in the public gaze was also fiercely debated, although medics praised her for raising awareness of the risks of her disease.

Hundreds lined the streets of Bermondsey, south London, and threw flowers and applauded as the hearse carrying her coffin drove by.

About 2,000 more people gathered outside St John's church in Buckhurst Hill, just north of the capital, to watch the funeral service relayed on a giant screen outside.

Inside the church, Max Clifford, Goody's publicist, described her as "someone who wanted to be a star and someone by purely being herself became a star, someone who has achieved an awful lot in a short space of time, someone who today the whole world is watching."

Goody rode the highs and lows of celebrity, dividing opinion between those inspired by her rise from a tough childhood to gossip magazine cover queen and those who dismissed her as someone who was famous for nothing.

After the funeral Goody was to be buried at a family ceremony.

On "Big Brother" in 2002 Goody was initially ridiculed for her apparent lack of education - she thought Saddam Hussein was a boxer - and criticized for her behavior toward house mates but she gradually won over the public.

She went on to become a regular in gossip magazines, wrote an autobiography and launched her own perfume, but her popularity sank in 2007 after racially charged tirades against Indian housemate Shilpa Shetty in "Celebrity Big Brother."

Goody's popularity was restored by her decision to die publicly to earn money for her two sons.



 

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