Goody`s cancer sparks rise in tests

London, Feb 17: Hospitals in Britain are seeing a surge in testing for cervical cancer due to the so-called "Jade Goody Effect", after the reality TV star who is dying from the disease, reports said.Goody, whose publicist confirmed she plans to marry her fiance in the coming week, discovered she had cervical cancer last year and revealed last week that doctors had given her months to live.

The 27-year-old mother-of-two shot to international fame for taunting Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the British TV programme "Celebrity Big Brother" in 2007. According to the Guardian newspaper, multiple hospitals had conducted an increased number of cervical cancer smears in recent months, after Goody was told in August that she suffered from the disease. "We have definitely seen an increase in uptake due to Jade Goody," Robert Music, director of the cervical cancer group Jo`s Trust, said. "The fact that it is in the news a lot of the time clearly makes a difference." University Hospital Lewisham in south London had carried out 21 percent more tests since Goody found out she had cancer, compared to the same period a year earlier, The Guardian reported. Goody`s publicist Max Clifford meanwhile confirmed on Tuesday that she will marry her boyfriend Jack Tweed, 21, on Sunday. Goody briefly left her London hospital on Monday to exchange rings with Tweed and later went to Harrods department store to choose a wedding dress, gifted to her by the store`s owner, Egyptian-born tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed. The former dental nurse initially gained noteriety in Britain for her stint on the 2002 edition of the reality television show "Big Brother". She quickly won a following for her chaotic appearance and her often questionable command of general knowledge and the English language, at one point asking: "Rio de Janeiro, ain`t that a person?" But she tarnished her image in 2007 after she was accused of racism and bullying towards Shetty, whom she called "Shilpa Poppadom", when the pair appeared on "Celebrity Big Brother". Eighteen months later, Goody sought to tackle her critics head-on by appearing in an Indian version of the show, called "Bigg Boss". Bureau Report