Jeff Brazier has opened up about his fears that his sons could one day be struck down by the disease that killed their mother.
In 2009, mum Jade Goody lost her battle with cervical cancer at the tender age of 27, leaving Jeff to raise their sons Freddie and Bobby single-handedly.
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Now fearful that their sons could one day be affected by the disease, he has teamed up with Dr Christian Jessen to back a campaign for men to be offered the HPV vaccination.
HPV (human papillomavirus) is a sexually transmitted disease which can lead to cervical cancer in women.
Because of that, the vaccine has been readily available for girls aged 12-13 on the NHS for the past nine years.
However, Jeff is keen to raise awareness that HPV can also pose a risk to men, and could lead to anal and oral cancers.
Speaking to Mail Online, Jeff, who is now a trained life coach, admitted that he is scared that one day his sons – Bobby, 13, and Freddie, 12 – could one day be affected by the disease.
“Jade’s death may have been HPV-related so as a family we know first-hand how heart-breaking the consequences of the virus can be,” he said.
“Jade would want me to do all I can to protect our boys and I can’t lose them too.”
He said that by vaccinating his own sons he’s reducing their risk of them getting certain forms of cancer.
Jeff recently explained how his sons had coped in the years following their mother’s death and how he had made sure they never forgot who she was.
“The boys are doing incredibly well,” he said.
“They have triggers around the house that will make them talk about her. The pictures, the memories, that will enable us to keep her an open subject of conversation.”
He also admitted that just after Jade had lost her fight with cancer, he decided the best thing to do for their kids was to whisk them away from the prying paps and keep them out of the limelight.
“After she died, my natural instinct was to take my children as far away from the media circus as I could possibly go,” he said.
“So I found myself buying myself a ticket to Australia.
“We went out there for three weeks to take stock and find our feet amidst everything that was going bonkers at the time. It was a lot to get your head around.”
Jade Goody made news headlines around the world when she was diagnosed with cancer during a stint in the Indian version of Big Brother (Big Boss).
She returned to the UK and embarked on chemotherapy but sadly the disease had consumed her body and after she married boyfriend Jack Tweed and was baptised, she died peacefully on Mother’s Day.
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Jeff took on the boys after Jade’s death and pledged to keep them out the media eye during their younger years.
He has only recently started to post pictures of the growing lads online.