Mandy Allwood, who lost all eight octuplets in 1996, dies of cancer
Mandy Allwood, who made headlines in 1996 after losing all eight of her babies after a rare octuplets pregnancy, has died of cancer. She was 56.
When Allwood was 31 she lost six boys and two girls, sparking an outpouring of grief and emotion from around the world.
Allwood’s loss led to her appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s chatshow and she also met the Princess of Wales for lunch.
“She had been struggling with cancer for a while and had an operation before Christmas but told us recently that it had come back,” her friend Mark Beard told the Sun.
Beard, a pub landlord in Stratfordupon-Avon, said he and friends intended to raise a glass to in tribute to her.
In 1996, Allwood gave birth at 24 weeks – 16 weeks early – over three days and nights, but none of the babies survived.
“I cradled each of them for two-anda-half hours as they died in my arms. It was horrible. Truly horrible,” Allwood said. “When I felt the last one coming, I said: ‘Please, God, let at least one of them live.’”
Allwood named her children Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson,
Donald, Kitali and Layne.
At the funeral, pallbearers carried eight small, green-and-white coffins adorned with flowers in a procession through West Norwood cemetery in south London.
In 2018, Allwood said she and Princess Diana “talked about her depression and my panic attacks and told me that she had been there too”, she told SWNS.
“We spoke about her family and she talked a lot about Charles and Camilla. She had a lovely life.”
Allwood went on to have three more children. In 2007, she was charged with drink driving and lost custody, later becoming estranged from her family.