Thaindian News

London, Feb 20 (IANS) Jade Goody, the cancer-stricken British reality television star, Friday said a “big thank you” to the people of India who she said have flooded her with emails, letters and get-well cards.

In a special message to Indians, relayed through IANS, she said she felt “honoured” by the love and support they have shown her in the past few weeks after doctors told her she had only months live.

Goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer in August last year and had to cancel her appearance on the Indian reality television show Bigg Boss to fly to Britain for treatment.

However, her cancer has since spread to her bowels, groin and liver, prompting her to advance plans for wedding her boyfriend Jack Tweed and raising money for her two young children.

Her publicist Max Clifford Associates gave a special message from Goody to Indians through IANS.

“I think Jade would like to say a big thank you to all the people of India who have sent cards, letters and emails to her in the past few weeks,” said Lucy Heather, Head of PR at the Max Clifford Associates.

“She really feels honoured by the amount of love and support given to her.”

In India, meanwhile, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty urged people to pray for Goody, saying she had made friends with her “a very long time ago,” following a race row on the British reality show Big Brother.

“I buried the hatchet a very long time ago, not because I’d heard about her being diagnosed with cancer. I’d repeatedly told people my feelings and I really didn’t want to have any ill feelings against her.

“It’s really sad to know that her health is deteriorating and I really want people to forget the past and I really want them to pray and send her good wishes because that’s something that will give her energy. I really want all the positive things to be affecting her at this point,” Shetty told ITV News.

Goody left London’s Royal Marsden Hospital Wednesday to prepare for her wedding, which is set to be held Sunday at Down Hall, a country house hotel in Essex. The star looked pale and unsteady as she was helped from a wheelchair into a waiting ambulance.

She is expected to earn nearly a million pounds from selling television and magazine rights to the wedding and her children’s christening and other media deals. Goody will leave the sum for her sons Bobby, five, and Freddie, four.

Her friend and publicist Max Clifford said she would spend time at home to see how she coped ahead of Sunday’s ceremony.

He said: “She’s gone home to see how it goes and to help prepare for her wedding. Whether she’s at home for a day, two days, three days depends on how she gets on.”

(Dipankar De Sarkar can be contacted at dd.sarkar@ians.in)