Thousands pay respects to Goody

THOUSANDS lined the streets to say goodbye to reality television star Jade Goody over the weekend.

And hundreds gathered outside the St John the Baptist Church in Buckhurst Hill to watch her funeral service relayed on giant screens.

Singer Jamelia and Davina McCall, presenter of Channel 4 reality show Big Brother, joined Jade’s mother Jackiey Budden, 51, widower Jack Tweed, 21, and more than 300 mourners at the ceremony.

Publicist Max Clifford told the congregation Jade was a “very ordinary and very extraordinary” woman who became a “princess” and a “queen”.

Goody died on March 22 at the age of 27 after losing her battle with cervical cancer.

Her funeral procession traced the journey of her life — starting in Bermondsey, south London, travelling to her home in Upshire, Essex, then moving to Buckhurst Hill, where Tweed lives.

“When we left the house it was cloudy and overcast. As we moved forwards the sun started to come through and that is what in many ways Jade’s life was like,” Clifford told mourners.

He said he met Goody seven years ago, after she appeared on Big Brother, and added: “Even then it was obvious there was something very special about this girl, who was very ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.”

Mourners left the service to the strains of the song You Raise Me Up and applauded as the coffin was carried from the church.

Goody was buried at a private service after the funeral and friends remembered her at a private wake.

Her sons Bobby, 5, and Freddie, 4, did not attend the funeral.

Mourners watched a collection of images of Goody on two giant screens while listening to The Beatles’s song She Loves You.

The montage ended with a film clip of Goody saying: “That’s it from me. See you around maybe. Bye.”