‘Octomum’ Mandy Allwood, who became famous in the 90s when she announced she was expecting eight babies, has died at the age of 56, her family have confirmed.
Allwood sadly lost all octuplets, who did not survive after she gave birth to six boys and two girls at 24 weeks.
She will be buried today in a ‘small service’, a friend said, who added that there will be no mourners.
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Her close family declined to comment, but confirmed to The Sun that they would not be attending Allwood’s funeral.
Allwood’s friend Mark Beard said about a dozen of her friends planned to raise a glass to her life tonight.
Beard, the landlord of the Yard of Ale pub in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, said Allwood would pop in two times a week.
He told the Sun: “She blended in really well and was always up for a chat.
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“She was a bit eccentric and nutty but that’s why we loved her.
“She sometimes spoke about what happened to her, with the eight babies. People would often ask her about it.
“When we first met she told us who she was and she said she had been in magazines in the past but that was it.”
Beard added: “We are sending some flowers for the small service. The undertaker is sending some, too.
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“It’s very sad that she won’t have anyone at her funeral.
“They just say a little prayer and it’s all over in five minutes I think.”
“She just didn’t have anybody really and I don’t think she was in touch with her family at all. It’s a shame.
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“The flowers are going to be brought back here and put on the bar and around a dozen of us will be raising a glass to her.
“We wanted to mark it somehow. It only seems right.”
Allwood had named her octuplets – her children with former partner Paul Hudson - Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson, Donald, Kitali and Layne.
In 2013, she told the Mirror’s Sunday People: “Over three days and nights I miscarried eight times.
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“I cradled each of them for two and a half hours as they died in my arms. It was horrible. Truly horrible.
“When I felt the last one coming, I said, ‘Please, God, let at least one of them live’.”
Allwood would lay flowers for her eight children at West Norwood Cemetery in South London.
She added: “You will never forget your little boy or girl but you can’t change it.
“You will always have those memories and you will come through it.”
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