Octomum Mandy Allwood is cremated in a ‘pauper’s funeral’ following her death from cancer aged 56

Neighbours have revealed the troubled final days of tragic ‘Octomum’ Mandy Allwood as she battled alcoholism and flooded her flat before her death from cancer.

Mandy made headlines around the world 26 years ago when she fell pregnant with eight children aged 31 in 1996.

Tragically at 24 weeks, Mandy gave birth to six boys and two girls over three days and three nights – but each of the babies died in a matter of hours.

Mandy went on to have three children but neighbours and friends said she ‘never recovered’ from the trauma of losing her babies.

Mandy’s former mother in law, Sybil Wheeler, who lives with her husband Clon in the West Midlands, said: ‘It is sad to hear this news about Mandy. We have not seen her for a very long time, since our granddaughters were little.’

Sybil’s son Paul had three daughters with Mandy after she lost her eight babies.

‘I don’t think she ever really got over what happened to her with those babies she lost,’ said Sybli.

‘She hit the bottle and stopped looking after herself and her children.

Mandy Allwood’s funeral was due to take place today at Redditch Crematorium (pictured)

‘In the end Paul had to go to court to get custody of them. It was a very sad story and I am upset to hear that she has passed on at such a young age.’

Sybil said her granddaughters were all now grown up with jobs having gone to University.

‘Paul did his best,’ she said.

According to the Sun, close family members did not attend her funeral but that undertaker Nigel Pearce brought the flowers to Mandy’s favourite pub where friends Mark Beard and Samantha Moore raised a glass in her memory.

Mr Beard, landlord at the Yard and Ale in Stratford upon Avon, told the newspaper: ‘Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed at the funeral. But a good group of us who knew her are here.

‘We wanted to give Mandy a proper send-off – one that she deserved.’ 

Mandy’s former neighbour Gillian Biddle, who lived next to her in a flat in Stratford-upon-Avon, said: ‘I am so sorry to hear about her death. I know she was very unhappy and life was a struggle for her.

‘She had fallen out with some of her family and her flat had pictures of all her children, those she lost as well as those who lived, but she did not really see any of them.

‘She had a drink problem but she also had a heart of gold. When I lost my own daughter she was very supportive to me and I will always appreciate that.

‘I last met her about three years ago when we had a coffee together. She had lost a lot of weight and told me that she had cancer.

‘She moved about five years ago to another part of town and when Covid came I just lost touch with her.’

It was reported that the tragic 56-year-old mother of 11 was due to have a pauper’s funeral at the crematorium (The hearse, pictured, was not involved in the funeral) 

Mandy Allwood, who became pregnant with eight babies but lost them all, visited their grave with partner Paul Hudson on the first anniversary of their funeral at West Norwood cemetery

Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson, Donald, Kitali and Layne all died within hours of being born. Pictured: The funeral held for the babies at West Norwood Cemetery in October 1996

Following her death from cancer aged 56, Mandy will be cremated today at a service with no friends or family present.

Mandy lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and her neighbours said the area would be a much quieter place without her.

They revealed how she battled alcohol which led to her accidentally flooding her property on several occasions

One neighbour, who would only give her name as Sue, said she often helped Mandy when she could as she felt sorry for her.

Sue added: ‘I didn’t know her very well because she was a bit of a funny person, she was an alcoholic so she could be a bit in your face.

‘I tried to give her what she needed and help. It was a shame, I felt sorry for her – but it was just too much to handle. It is a bit of a relief.

‘She flooded the flat underneath her when she overfilled her bath. The guy in the flat below couldn’t do anything to stop it.

‘She denied it and wasn’t very helpful – so she was a bit of a mixed character. He’s now got to get his flat sorted because she did it three times.

Mandy struggled to come to terms with the loss and spiralled into a haze of depression, suicide attempts and alcohol addiction. Pictured: the neglected grave of her eight babies in 1997

‘It wasn’t that she did it intentionally, she was just so drunk.

‘With this virus too she was constantly coming over to my house and hugging me, and I had to be nice with her but I even had to lock my doors.

‘Once she just came into the flat, she was just so drunk she never knew what she was doing.

‘I know it sounds awful, but it’s lovely around here and now she’s gone it’s a bit better.’

Mandy’s home could be seen today covered in elaborate, chaotic and colourful decorations with her front door labelling her flat ‘the manor’.

Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: ‘She was certainly a character to say the least, but she never recovered from what happened to her.

‘You can’t even imagine the trauma she went through so its understandable I suppose but she did have her struggles with the bottle.

‘It will certainly be quieter around here, she was rather eccentric. Despite her problems, she had a heart of gold.’

She made global headlines when she announced she was expecting eight children in 1996 with Paul Hudson (pictured together) – but all eight of her children died at 24 weeks

Mother-of-eight who never recovered from losing all her babies in the three days after giving birth to them

In September 1996, she gave birth to  six boys and two girls – just 24 weeks into her pregnancy.

Within hours of being born, each had died.

The years that followed saw Mrs Allwood descend into depression, suicide attempts and alcohol addiction.

Mrs Allwood said recently that she had relieved the death of each of her children, who were born – and died – over the course of three days.

In an interview with the Sunday People, Mrs Allwood said she has tried to kill herself twice, and battled an alcohol addiction.

She said: ‘Over three days and nights I miscarried eight times.

‘I cradled each of them for two-and-a-half hours as they died in my arms. It was horrible. Truly horrible.’

She said she prayed to God when she felt the last of her children being born that at least one of them would live, only for her eighth child to die too.

The children are all buried in West Norwood Cemetery, South London.

Mandy previously told how she spiralled into depression and suffered with suicidal thoughts in the years after her babies died in her arms.

But she revealed that secret meetings with Princess Diana, who personally comforted her, is what got her through her darkest days.

Mandy said: ‘She came to meet me when I was staying at the Ritz and the Dorchester in London. She was absolutely lovely.

‘I never really got the chance to say thank you to her properly.

‘She gave me a hug, showed me lots of support and told me she liked my dress.

‘When we first met she said to me ‘thank you for keeping me off the front pages for a change’

‘It was a massive boost for me.’

Mandy continued to mark the anniversaries of the death of her children – Kypros, Adam, Martyn, Cassius, Nelson, Donald, Kitali and Layne – by visiting their graves alone.

She said: ‘They are always in my mind and I think about them every single day.

‘I have good days and bad days but I’m feeling a lot better.

‘I feel happy and positive about the future.’

Giving advice to other women who had lost babies, she added: ‘You will never ever forget your babies, but don’t be hard on yourself.

‘You will never forget your little boy or girl but you can’t change it.

‘Stay positive and it will work out.’

But she struggled to come to terms with her devastating loss and spiralled into a haze of depression, suicide attempts and alcohol addiction after splitting from Mr Hudson. She also lost custody of her three surviving children after being caught drink driving with them in the back in 2007 and became estranged from her family.

She also continued to suffer from phantom pregnancy and said she could still feel babies kicking inside her every day.

She hit a low in 2008, when she would drink wine from the minute she woke up, even ordering a taxi to take her to buy more after she lost her driving licence.

She also attempted to take her own life on two occasions and lost custody of her children and became estranged from her family. 

Her friend, Mark Beard, 58, the landlord of the Yard of Ale pub, 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 said Mandy would pop in to his pub twice a week and ‘was a bit eccentric and nutty but that’s why we loved her’.

He said a dozen of her friends will raise a glass to her life to remember her life. 

Before the tragedy, Mrs Allwood had a son, Charlie, from her failed marriage.

But after longing for children with new partner Paul and suffering repeated miscarriages, she took fertility drugs.

Claims were made at the time that Mrs Allwood went against medical advice by having the fertility treatment in the first place; and that afterwards she cashed in on the tragedy.

However, Mrs Allwood – who went on to have three daughters – always rejected the accusations and said she told her story because she wanted to help others who have experienced the horror of a miscarriage.

She previously said she was ‘angry’ that some people judged her for her decision not to abort any of the eight foetuses to give the rest a chance of survival.