Jade 'lifted' by messages of support

Jade Goody was “absolutely lifted” by the messages of support she received from people across the country as she recovered from a successful operation to remove a cancerous tumour from her bowel, her publicist said today.

Max Clifford said the reality TV star was in tears as she was read some of the “hundreds and hundreds” of emails she received while recovering at the Royal Marsden Hospital in central London yesterday.

He added that a number of medical tubes were making speaking difficult for the 27-year-old, who was still “very sore” following the operation to remove the golf ball-sized tumour, but that she was looking forward to starting her new course of chemotherapy this week.

“She’s very sore, very tender,” Mr Clifford said.

“But she’s very relieved that they have managed to get rid of the lump in her bowel and clear the obstruction that has caused her so much pain over the last few weeks.”

Goody, who has two young children – Bobby, five, and Freddie, four – is expected to be given a new drug in an attempt to combat her spreading illness later this week.

Doctors have prescribed a two-month course of Topotecan, which is still being tested in the UK and is used by sufferers who do not respond to more conventional treatments.

“She’s looking forward to the new treatment she’s starting this week,” Mr Clifford said.

She was also “absolutely lifted” by the vast amount of emails from people all over Britain that were brought in to the hospital yesterday, he said.

“There were hundreds of hundreds. it was such a tremendous lift for her. She was in tears yesterday when we showed them to her.”

Earlier this week, Goody, originally from Bermondsey, south London, learned her cervical cancer had spread to her bowel, liver and groin.

But she insisted that she wanted to continue to give interviews and appear in a reality television show as she battles her illness.

Goody was first diagnosed with the illness last August and has undergone extensive chemotherapy treatment which left her hairless.

The next episode in the reality series chronicling Jade’s life, 'Jade’s Progress', will be shown on Living TV on February 19.

Before the operation she told the channel: “I’m absolutely determined to beat this disease. I have two gorgeous boys and I need to live for them.

“People deal with cancer differently, there are some people who give up, some people who don’t have the strength to go on, but I am a go-go-go person, and if I stop I know I’ll just be depressed and I don’t want to be that.

“I’ve got every single reason in the world to survive; I’ve got two beautiful kids and the world ain’t ready to be parted with Jade Goody.”

The channel’s website said Goody was “determined to have her story told and educate other young women in similar situations” and added that the show would be “an open and honest account of what it’s like living with cancer in the public eye”.