A woman who made international headlines when she announced she was expecting octuplets has died aged 56 after developing cancer.

Mandy Allwood first announced she was expecting eight children, aged 31, with her then partner Paul Hudson after taking fertility drugs in 1996.

But the six boys and two girls, who were born over three days and three nights, tragically did not survive.

First reported by The Sun, Ms Allwood will be laid to rest today in a service funded by her local council, known as a pauper’s funeral, with no mourners present.

Her friend Mark Beard, 58, 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.”

Mr Beard, the landlord of the Yard of Ale pub in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, told The Sun that Ms Allwood would pop in two times a week, and said she was “loved” by the locals.

He said about a dozen of her friends would “raise a glass” in her memory after her family declined to attend her cremation.

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Her close family did not comment but confirmed to the newspaper that they would not be attending.

Ms Allwood went on to have three other children but never recovered from the loss of Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson, Donald, Kitali and Layne.

She would go on to appear on Oprah and have lunch with Princess Diana, and eventually sued disgraced publicist Max Clifford for secretly profiteering from her story.

She struggled with depression, and she lost custody of her three surviving children and became estranged from her family.

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