JADE GOODY: Is there such a thing as a useless person?

An odd question you might think and according to my late grandmother the answer to this question is NO.

My grandmother was an interesting woman and had a real interest in people. Her home was always full of people from all walks of life, mostly refugees from Rwanda.

When she became frail she moved in with us. I remember my brother getting a lecture from Grand ma, who had overheard him describe someone as "useless and a complete waste of space".

"There is no such thing as a a useless person, every person on earth is valuable and useful, Our challenge is to discover that" she told my siblings and I time and time again.

For some reason I have found myself preoccupied with these words recently, as I have followed the news about Jade Goody. I am not a fan Big Brother and that kind of television, so I had no idea who this girl was until the Shilpa Shetty affair, and the effect it had on channel 4, by way of complaints.

I recall asking a friend what the point of Jade Goody is having seen a clip on the news where she appeared to have lost it completely as she "tore" into Shilpa. My friend's response was "she was on Big Brother" Oh Well!

There has been a lot of news about Jade as she battles with terminal cancer, the rights and wrongs of her decisions to sell her story.

However one particular news item about Jade stopped me in tracks.It was reported on ITV news that by agreeing to live out her days in the public, she has encouraged many women to go for a cervical smear test, the numbers of women turning up for these tests have been so great that the NHS and the government jointly could not have achieved them.

And that will be her legacy or the POINT of Jade Goody!

So you see my grandmother was right all along every person is valuable, there is no such a thing as a useless person and our challenge is to discover that in others!