Stratford funeral for Octomum Mandy Allwood

A woman once famously known as ‘Octomum’ has died aged 56 of cancer, and will be cremated at a pauper’s funeral in Stratford today (Friday).

Mandy Allwood, who became famous across the world in 1996 when she revealed she was expecting octuplets, only to tragically lose all eight babies at 24 weeks, has died after developing cancer.

A resident of Stratford in the later years of her life, Mandy achieved global fame when, aged 31, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to reveal she was expecting eight babies with her boyfriend, Paul Hudson.

However, Mandy went into labour 16 weeks early and gave birth to six boys and two girls, each of which died over the course of three days.

She was then the subject of tabloid stories claiming she was cashing in on her family tragedy.

Speaking to The Sun, Mandy’s friend, Mark Beard, landlord of the Yard of Ale pub in Stratford, said: “She had been struggling with cancer for a while and had an operation before Christmas but told us recently that it had come back. I don’t know what sort of cancer it was.”

Mark added that Mandy would call into the Birmingham Road pub about twice a week.

He said: “She blended in really well and was always up for a chat. 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.”

While enduring a barrage of hate mail in the weeks following her miscarriages, Mandy had two meetings with Princess Diana at the Ritz and Dorchester Hotel, after receiving two lunch invitations in the post, as she revealed to the Daily Record in 2018.

Mandy told the Record: “She knew I was suffering with depression. But she was lovely to me and told me that I was a lovely woman. She was fabulous.

"We talked about her depression and my panic attacks and told me that she had been there too.”

Mandy named her lost octuplets Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson, Donald, Kitali and Layne. All eight were buried in small white coffins at West Norwood Cemetery in South London.