LONDON ? British reality television star Jade Goody, who won the nation's heart with her rags-to-riches success and her very public battle with cervical cancer, died Sunday aged 27.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown led the tributes to the mother-of-two, who lived her adult life in the spotlight but died in her sleep at home at 03:14 a.m. (0314 GMT), with husband Jack Tweed and mother Jackiey Budden by her side.

"My beautiful daughter is at peace," Budden said. Goody's publicist Max Clifford added: "She was a very, very brave girl. And she faced her death in the way she faced her whole life -- full on, with a lot of courage."

Brown said he was "deeply saddened" by Goody's death in Upshire, southeast England, and hailed the effect of the intense media coverage of her dying days in raising awareness of cancer among young people.

The months of publicity, fuelled by intense debate involving uneasy media commentators, reportedly led to a 20 percent rise in the number of young women taking the smear tests that can detect cervical cancer.

However, Goody maintained she only cashed-in on her circumstances ? including selling the rights to her February wedding for vast sums ? to guarantee financial independence for her two young sons.

An ex-dental nurse from south London with a troubled family background, Goody shot to celebrity with a loudmouthed appearance on the "Big Brother" reality television franchise when it appeared on British screens in 2002.

She capitalized by releasing an autobiography, perfume and exercise video, becoming a millionaire in the process.

But her career came close to ruin when she subjected Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty to racist bullying on a celebrity edition of the show in 2007, calling her "Shilpa Poppadom."

The two later made peace and Goody appeared on the Indian version of "Big Brother," hosted by Shetty.

Goody was forced to pull out after receiving her cancer diagnosis as the cameras rolled.

"She was a courageous woman both in life and death," Brown said in a statement.

"She will be remembered fondly by all who knew her and her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer."

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of charity Cancer Research UK, said she had done a "great public service" as her "brave battle... encouraged thousands of women to seek advice on how to prevent the disease".

Shetty said she was "deeply saddened" by the news but "glad she is out of pain."

Goody married Tweed -- a 21-year-old aspiring footballers' agent jailed last year for attacking a 16-year-old with a golf club -- on February 22, nine days after he proposed in hospital following her terminal diagnosis.

Media rights for the lavish ceremony at a country house hotel north of London were reportedly sold for one million pounds (1.1 million euros, 1.4 million dollars).

Goody and sons Bobby, five, and Freddy, four ? who she had with ex-boyfriend and television presenter Jeff Brazier ? were christened on March 7, another event captured by a magazine.

Her publicist Clifford said she wanted the christening so her sons "know about Jesus and hopefully in the years ahead they'll be able to keep in touch with (her) through Jesus."

Her funeral, to be held at her local church in the next 10 days, will again be a very public affair. Clifford said Goody had planned it herself and that it would be "very much a Jade Goody production."

Piles of flowers were left outside the gates of her home as members of the public came to pay their respects, and the newspapers that followed her life published front page tributes Monday.

Phil Edgar-Jones, the man who selected Goody to appear on the Big Brother in 2002, suggested she was so popular because she represented millions of people in Britain who had had a difficult upbringing and no real education.

"She showed that an ordinary person with no particular talent, no particular life chances, could make something of herself," he told Channel Four News.