[Red Moon]

Spirited Jade Goody gives thumbs-up after latest bowel op

She clutches weakly at a breathing tube as her life ebbs away.

Yet ailing Jade Goody is a picture of true grit yesterday as she is wheeled from hospital following her latest pain-relieving op.

Defying the agony coursing through her disease-ravaged body, brave Jade, 27, summoned up her failing reserves of strength to wave at cameras and chat cheerily to medics.

It is a gesture that will touch the hearts of a nation following every step of her tragic cancer battle.

The mum of two is still waiting to learn whether the 90-minute procedure to remove a bowel blockage – in which she needed four pints of blood – was a success.

Spokesman Max Clifford said it would determine whether Jade survived beyond the end of the month.

He said: “The prognosis depends on how she responds to surgery and how beneficial it is.

“The next 24 hours will be critical. Jade did have problems after the op but is much more settled today, so we’re hoping she improves.

“If her bowel is cleared and she’s able to eat properly and regain some strength, she could live much longer than that.”

Husband Jack Tweed, 21, paid an emotional visit to Jade’s bedside yesterday, hours after being convicted of assault.

Jack – freed on licence only in January after a jail term for another assault – has been warned he could be jailed when he is sentenced on March 26.

A friend revealed: “Jack told Jade all about the case. She was just relieved he was not put straight back in jail and can be with her as much as possible over the coming weeks.”

Max added: “Her whole attitude is that she wants to make the best of the time she has left. That’s the most important thing, that’s her purpose. Jack and her two boys are the most important things to her and she wants to remain positive for them and enjoy every second she has left with them.”

Jade’s pal Kevin Adams, the fitness coach from TV’s Fame Academy, told how she was still in some discomfort as she recovered from surgery in the early hours of yesterday.

Kevin stayed overnight at West London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital as she underwent the procedure.

He said: “She had some pain, although it it wasn’t severe, so she kept on having pain relief throughout the night.

“Then, around 3.30am-4am, all of a sudden she had a reaction and was shuddering, so the nurse came in and gave her some blankets.

“She was cold and there was a chill in the air in the room, but it was not enough to make her teeth chatter.

“The nurse rubbed her arms and went to get the doctor, by which time Jade’s lips had started to go blue.”

Kevin added : “On a scale of one to 10 her pain was a sharp 10 but now she is down to a six.”

After surgery the Big Brother favourite, her head covered in a white scarf, was taken the short distance back to London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.

Last week she spent time in St Clare Hospice in Harlow, Essex, to have her pain medication altered. Jade has also revealed that her eyes are gradually getting worse as the cancer takes hold of her increasingly frail body.

She told New! magazine: “I can’t drive Bobby and Freddy to school any more because my medication is affecting my eyesight so badly.

“My lovely hubby Jack and my good friend Kevin Adams have been taking it in turns to do the school run for me.

“Before I went into the hospice I was still getting up at 7am to get the boys up and dressed.”

It also emerged yesterday that Jade was planning to embark on a new career working with cancer victims when her own tragic condition was diagnosed by doctors in August last year.

Jade had been in training to help women who had lost a breast to the disease.

It involved her tattooing eyebrows on to women who had lost their hair to chemotherapy – a fate that just months later would befall her as well.

Cathy Brown, from the Nouveau Contour training academy in Milton Keynes, Bucks, said: “It’s so ironic that this happened to Jade when she showed such compassion and empathy and really wanted to help people with cancer.

“She got quite upset about it but she felt very strongly about helping these women. We are all so shocked.”

Source and Video: Daily Mirror