Jade Goody - A life less ordinary

23/03/2009 by The Daily Male.

I am sure you are all by now aware that Jade Goody sadly passed away this weekend. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would not wish what she has been through on my worst enemy, I lost a good friend to cancer some years ago and know all too well the devastation this inhuman illness can cause and all the pain and distress of the families left behind. I truly feel for Jade’s children, direct family and close friends. However, I have been somewhat baffled by the outpouring of public grief form all corners of British life, even the PM, Gordon ‘is a moron’ Brown chipped in with his two pennies worth. The Sun, who only a few months ago characterised Jade as, and I quote “RACIST SCUM” now appartently thinks that she is the greatest UK hero of our time, even featuring a multipage pull out obit? Even Stephen Fry, a man I have deep respect for, compared her to Princess Di. Can someone tell me where to get hold of these XXL rose tinted glasses everyone seems be wearing? The hypocrisy makes my skin itch.

It seem that she is somehow applauded for publicising her cancer because it has “raised awareness” of cervical cancer. But surely this is not by design but merely a side effect of her celebrity. I feel for all people who right now are battling cancer but do so with courage, grace and dignity. All the men and women who give of themselves to help others without the need for a camera crew to record their deeds. I weep for all those children who will lose a mother or father to cancer in the coming months and years who will not have the cushion of a million pound OK deal to secure their future, only the pain of watching the remaining parent struggle to make ends meet to ensure their future. These are the true heroes of our society, we walk past them every day and do not notice them and they all worth a million Jade Goody’s.

I can not follow the hypocrites, I have to stick to my true feelings, I have never liked Jade, I think she was an appalling role model to young people and her terrible illness and tragic and untimely death does not change the person that she was. This was a woman whose education and upbringing was so poor that she actually thought East Anglia was another country and had never seen or heard of asparagus. What can people possibly learn from her life, that to be poorly educated and ignorant is cool, that all you need to get on in life is to be a rude, aggressive bully, as long as you can do this in front of a camera all your worries will be over. If Jade’s all to short life is to teach us anything is to highlight all the things that are wrong with our society. An education system that fails many young people, a society blighted (perhaps broken) by drugs and neglect. What we can only hope is that Jade is the last of her kind, that we strive to ensure that we no longer fail our youth and that in future we can hold up better examples to the next generation.

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