Dying Jade is baptised with her sons then says last goodbye to friends
JADE GooDy said a poignant farewell to family and friends one-by-one yesterday as her own final wish became a reality as she and her sons were baptised.
Too ill to travel to her home in Essex, she was forced to have the short, intimate ceremony at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital, where she is being treated for terminal cancer.
Jade, 27, wore a white hospital gown and was fitted to an intravenous drip as she was wheeled by nurses into the small chapel, to be greeted by 30 guests and loved ones.
Her husband Jack Tweed looked ashen faced as he arrived at the hospital.
But later, after the family left the Chicago Rib Shack in Knightsbridge following the christening, he had to be restrained by a friend after getting into an argument at an Underground station.
Earlier Jade’s sons, Freddie and Bobby Jack, arrived at the hospital with their father Jeff Brazier to be christened so they could “see mummy in Heaven” after she dies.
Freddie, four, sat on Jade’s knee while five-year-old Bobby Jack sat on their father’s lap, and both boys giggled while water was poured over their heads.
Two weeks ago Big Brother star Jade had been the picture of radiance as she dazzled guests with her smiles and wedding finery.
But throughout yesterday’s service she looked tired and drawn, her skin yellow.
And all those gathered in the chapel were united in the knowledge this could be the last time they would see the young woman whose vitality had won her national fame.
The service was jointly held by hospital chaplain Chris Lee and Corinne Brixton, Vicar of St John’s Church in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, and was kept deliberately simple.
Friend and publicist Max Clifford said: “It was a beautiful and moving ceremony. Jade was very pale, she was very weak. She said she wanted to have the wedding and christening. Now she is happy she has done them both in her own way and in style. Jade didn’t shed a tear but it was obvious what it meant to her. She was determined it would
happen. She was pain free, smiling and happy now she is christened. It means her boys can be close to her through Jesus when she is not around any more.”
After the service the boys spent time with their mother in her bedroom and were expected to return to the hospital today.
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF JADE’S CHRISTENING IN WORDS AND PICTURES ONLY IN THIS WEEK’S OK! MAGAZINE JADE EXCLUSIVE
