Sally's World

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that having a fund raising charity walk for two healthy children, who are actually millionaires in their own right is taking things too far.

Now, Jade Goody is a 27 year old mum of two, she has just been given weeks to live from cervical cancer. My heart goes out to her and her family, and I, like most people I know, have been behind her and her choices 100% so far.

Jade has been criticized (quite unfairly in my opinion) for selling her story to the press, and for selling the rights to her wedding pictures for just under a million pounds. But she wasn’t doing it for her; she was doing it to secure a future for her sons. I think anyone her position would have done the same. If someone told me I was dying, and I had the opportunity to give my kids financial security for life…I’d grab it with both hands.

But, what I think has taken it too far is the fact that her friends and supporters had a fund raising walk over the weekend to raise money for her sons.

Whilst jade earning money for her sons is one thing, I’m not entirely sure she would have asked or wanted this. The reason she wanted to secure their financial future was because she didn’t want her boys to be seen as charity cases. I sincerely hope she steps in and insists that the money raised goes to cancer research.

There are thousands of families and kids out there suffering because of cancer, the majority of them are not celebrities and do not have the option of selling their stories and so on…perhaps the money could be used to help some of them, or the hospices that so need our support.

Jade is doing so much good in publicising her story, the amount of women going for smear tests has gone up, at least 20% in the UK since she started raising awareness. Yes, she may be getting paid for that publicity, but I think she would be raising awareness either way. It would be a real shame if her story was tainted by this fund raising walk.

So, I know Jade did not organise the walk, and I’m sure the organisers were trying to be helpful, but it is very misguided. Firstly, to do a charity walk, it needs to be for a charity, Jades boys most certainly are not, secondly, Jade has earned more than enough to secure their future financially.

It just smacked of friends of hers trying to get in on the act, which sounds harsh, but its how it seemed. Perhaps they should put that time and energy into raising money for the hundreds of worthwhile causes and charities there are to support.

If you want to read more about Jade and her brave fight against cancer, click on…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/4901791/Jade-Goody-feeling-brighter-in-hospice.html