Jade Goody...One year on.

I think it's tragic that anyone should die from such a cruel illness so young.

I also think it's tragic that someone should become so famous for being very stupid.

Whatever anyone thought about her as a 'celebrity' or a person, its still a tragedy that she passed away so young, and left two little'uns without their mum.

It is thanks to her that awareness is raised about cervical cancer, and I know that I wouldnt hesitate to have my daughter vaccinated against it.

When the whole tragic thing unfolded I really felt to me that it was a very bad taste publicity stunt. However, as time progressed, and her plight became apparent I felt ashamed that I had doubted her. No-one could possible have scripted her performance. So brave.

Nothing against her - in fact, I barely know anything about her (such is the level of attention I pay to celebrities). True that it's brought Cervical Cancer to the fore... it never should have needed her illness and death to do that.

I do think it's criminal that cervical cancer has gone un-talked about for so long. I used to work in sex-ed in schools and while most girls knew about smear tests - almost none knew that almost all cases of cervical cancer stem from an STD that most of them had never even heard of. (I can only remember about 3 or 4 occasions where someone knew it in 2 years of talking to hundreds of thousands of highschool students.)
The reason it was never spoken about? Because condoms are pretty much ineffective against it and so talking about it was seen to be discouraging the use of condoms.

On one occasion I had a school nurse (usually "responsible" for the sex ed in that school) try to tell me off for mentioning it for exactly that reason... and that wasn't the only case where it happened. Even on a policymaking level I came up against complaints from people on council bodies and the likes that I'd even dared to mention HPV and was called "irresponsible" for pointing out that condoms are ineffective against it. Instead of just toeing the "safe(r) sex" line that's so misleading. They, of course, changed their tune as soon as the silver-bullet arrived.
The instant the vaccine (which has many problems associated with it including increased risk of blood clots if the recipient is also taking combined oral contraceptive pills - not forgetting the lack of certainty about how effective it might be with lead gardasil/cervarix researchers speaking out against them in a conference meant to promote it) came onto the market - suddenly everyone was talking about it... and neglecting to mention the risks involved with girls on the pill and so on.


It is appaling HPV has been ignored in such an irresponsible way and more recently addressed as if it's little more than a minor concern rating only slightly above smallpox in the "things to worry about" stakes now that we've got a trumped up silver bullet. It's even worse that it's been misrepresented so completely by its cheerleaders.
No efficiacy studies for girls under 15.
No expected cuts in the rates of cervical cancer to result.
Giving Gardasil to girls as young as 11 is "a great big public-health experiment".
"The rate of serious adverse events is greater than the incidence rate of cervical cancer."

At least GlaxoSmithKline and Merck get to make a dirty great big pile of money out of it though.

Grumble.
Moan.
Gripe.

I'd seriously suggest thinking long and hard before having your daughters injected with either Gardasil or Cervarix. It's really not as simple as it's being made out to be by the same people who, for many years pre-vaccine put a lot of effort into avoiding the subject of HPV and the sexual origin of cervical cancer when it comes to educating young girls.

Well said

She wasn't someone I'd especially have wanted to sit down and have a cup of tea with but I'm quite sure that if the media had also offered to give me a substantial amount of cash for being 'very stupid', I wouldn't have said no!

But as northpaul says, whatever we do or don't think of her, she DID raise awareness of cervical cancer, perhaps most especially amongst the younger and more carefree women of today. That just can't ever be a bad thing.