Jade Goody: between chemo and the menopause, I don’t feel like a woman

Jade Goody has spoken about going through an early menopause and her chemotherapy in her ongoing battle against cervical cancer.

The one-time Big Brother star was diagnosed with the disease in August and underwent a radical hysterectomy in September to help prevent it from spreading. However, doctors found the cancer had already spread to tissue in surrounding organs and her planned radiotherapy and chemotherapy regime was increased.

Jade told New magazine recently: “I’ve got a 50 per cent chance of living and a 50 per cent chance of dying. It is literally split down the middle.

“I’m 27 - I don’t want to be sat here saying that. It breaks my heart.

“And on top of all that, I’m going through the menopause. I’m 27 and I’m having hot flushes.

“I don’t feel like a woman any more. I still have my ovaries, but the [radiotherapy] treatment kills everything. I’m crying one minute, then I’m hot. I’m all over the place.”

She added that she still hasn’t revealed the extent of her medical problems to her sons Bobby Jack and Freddie because she believes at five and four years old, they’re too young to really understand what is happening: “They think I’ve got tadpoles in my belly and when I go to hospital the medicine makes the tadpoles go to sleep, which makes me tired. And when the tadpoles die, my hair falls out.”