Jade Goody, the reality television star who lost her battle with cancer yesterday, will be mourned as she lived – in front of the cameras, her publicist said today.

The former dental nurse, who found fame and infamy on Big Brother, was central in planning a "Jade Goody production" to celebrate her life, her publicist, Max Clifford, said.

Large television screens are likely to be installed outside her local church, St John the Baptist in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, for the expected crowds.

There was speculation yesterday that one person who may miss the funeral is Goody's widower, Jack Tweed, who may be jailed when he appears before magistrates later this week. Tweed is due to be sentenced on Thursday for assaulting a taxi driver after being convicted earlier this month by Epping magistrates for attacking Stephen Wilkins last May.

Sentencing was postponed because of Goody's terminal illness, but the magistrates warned Tweed they were considering imprisonment. A spokeswoman for Harlow magistrates mourt confirmed yesterday that the hearing was still scheduled to go ahead.

Hundreds of well-wishers have visited Goody's home in Upshire, Essex, leaving flowers, cards, balloons and soft toys.

Ciarán Devane, the chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said Goody's "honesty and openness" about her cervical cancer had raised awareness of the illness and led to people discussing death and dying in a way they had not done before.

"We have also had calls from parents asking about the benefits of their 12- or 13-year-old daughter having the cervical cancer jab at school that has been available since September," he said.

"They have started off being quite sceptical about the vaccine, yet Jade's fight with cervical cancer has made them think again.

"If vaccination rates increase as a result, that's also a consequential good."

Clifford said Goody, 27, had originally given the job of planning the funeral to one of her bridesmaids at her wedding last month.

"But within a minute she was saying she didn't want that and she did want this, and how she wanted it to be. It will be a celebration, but of course there will be a lot of tears.

"It will be very much a Jade Goody production, with Jade doing her own thing her own way."

The service would be an "open" affair, said her friend, thephotographer Danny Hayward, with opportunities for fans to pay their respects.

Devane welcomed the opening up of the "UK's ingrained reluctance to talk about the grim realities" of an aggressive cancer.

"The thing I most admire about her is that she has been getting on with it: for example, deciding not only to marry, but to marry in style. And she didn't let the cancer get in the way of the wedding."

Goody died with her mother, Jackiey Budden, and husband at her side.

Several online tributes have been set up on the social networking site Facebook, drawing hundreds of thousands of supporters. More than 300 messages of support have been left on the memorial website Lasting Tribute.

Writing on Twitter, the comedian Stephen Fry described Goody as "a kind of Princess Di from the wrong side of the tracks".

Tweed is still on licence after being released from prison earlier this year. He was given an 18-month sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court last September after being convicted of assaulting a 16-year-old boy with a golf club during a row in Ongar, Essex, in December 2006.

Tweed, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, was seen leaving Goody's home on Sunday – but there was no sign of him at the house today.