*****: I'LL BE AT JADE'S FUNERAL
ABOVE: Michael Jackson
Michael has been very moved by Jade’s story
30th March 2009
By Gemma Wheatley and Richard Peppiatt
Michael Jackson is set to lead a host of mourners at Jade Goody’s funeral after promising her husband Jack Tweed he will be there.
#bodycopy a { font-size: 12px; } Thriller singer Michael, 50, is set to make lifelong ***** fan Jade’s dreams come true by attending the service.
***** and Jack have been in contact since the singer found out about Jade’s tragic cancer plight when he was in London earlier this month.
And the singer has vowed to support Jade’s family in any way he can following her death on Mother’s Day, including attending her funeral.
He is now at the top of the list of guests drawn up by Jack, who is helping to put the finishing touches to the celebratory ceremony which will take place on Saturday.
A source close to the 21-year-old widower said: “Michael has been very moved by Jade’s story.
“He has pledged to offer any support he can and he has promised to try and make it to the funeral on Saturday.”
Michael made Jade very happy during her final days by calling several times to speak to her and leave messages of support.
The source added: “He spoke to Jade and Jack more than once shortly before she passed away.”
Jack has been impressed and comforted by Michael’s offer of support and even has a voice message from ***** stored on his phone, which he has apparently played to a few select pals.
One told the Daily Star: “In the message he offers to do anything he can to help ease the suffering of Jade’s family and also to support any charitable efforts in her name.”
News of Michael’s vow to attend the ceremony comes just weeks after it emerged the superstar is due to perform in London this summer in a “farewell” performance.
Michael first heard of Jade after she appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 alongside his brother Jermaine, 54.
During his visit to the UK three weeks ago to promote his upcoming O2 gigs, the pop singer got in touch as an ailing Jade lay in the Royal Marsden Hospital.
One of the several calls which Jade received from Michael was on the day she was being Christened along with her two sons Bobby, five, and four-year-old Freddy.
The star, whose hit song Got To Be There reached No 5 in the UK charts in 1972, recorded a message for the dying mum to wish her well.
In it he said: “Hi Jade, it’s Michael. I’m thinking of you and I hope everything goes as well as it can.
“I want you to come and see me when I’m over. My brother keeps asking me about you.”
At the time the cancer-stricken star, who was a huge fan of *****’s, admitted being “blown away” by the bedside message he left for her and joked that perhaps she could blag some concert tickets from him.
Chuffed Jade said later: “Who would have ever thought Michael Jackson would call me up?”
Meanwhile, thousands of Jade fans plan to travel from across the UK to be at her funeral.
Brits who were captured by Jade’s lively spirit have even arranged coaches to ferry them to Essex so they can pay tribute to the reality star.
Hundreds of mourning fans and well-wishers have already descended on the little church in Essex where Jade’s funeral is to take place on Saturday, to add their names to a book of condolence there.
Regional books of condolences will also be set up across the nation to cater for the huge number of people who want to pay their last respects but cannot make the journey.
Well-wishers who live too far away to visit the church of St John The Baptist in Buckhurst Hill, begged organisers to provide some kind of tribute in their local area.
Jade’s spokesman Max Clifford said: “People have been genuinely affected by Jade’s death and we have been inundated with people saying they want to come down but that it’s too far away.
“We feel the best way forward would be to open regional books of condolences, maybe one in the North, one in the West and one in the East.
“Perhaps we will need more. We are still trying to work that out.”
Email and text chains are being sent between thousands of Brits so fans can pledge support for Britain’s most loved Big Brother star.
And a host of other celebrities are expected to join ***** in saying a sad farewell to the former dental nurse.
Guests including the Sugababes, Kerry Katona, 28, and TV’s Richard and Judy are just a few of the big names expected to attend.
Max, 65, also revealed how Jade used to make desperate calls to him in the middle of the night asking what she had done to deserve her cancer.
In an emotional interview, the publicity mogul, who became very close to Jade during her illness, told how she faced the end with dignity and bravery by hiding her fears as best she could.
Max said: “In the early stages after her diagnosis I’d get calls time and time again in the middle of the night.”
He said she pleaded: “Max, I don’t want to die. Why do I have to die? What have I ever done? Max, what can I do? Help.”
Max was trying to help Jade get back into the public eye after her controversial appearance on Celebrity Big Brother when she was diagnosed with disease.
And he admitted he got very attached to the celebrity before her death.
He added: “There was probably an emotional connection because you are so close to it.”
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/74687/*****-I-ll-be-at-Jade-s-funeral/
