How London comedy saved comedian Jayde Adams after her sister's death

Comedian Jayde Adams says London gay bars saved her following the death of her sister.

The Bristolian who now lives in East London is putting her general knowledge to the test this week on Richard Osman's House of Games.

She made a name for herself by making people laugh on tv programmes such as Alma’s Not Normal and Crazy Delicious.

READ MORE: BBC Richard Osman’s House of Games: Sunetra Sarker’s life from forgotten role in Doctors to unconventional marriage with long-distance husband she doesn’t live with

She even won the 2014 Funny Women award and was a 2016 nominee for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

The reason she got into comedy in the fist place, however, isn't a laughing matter.

Previously working as a bouncer and then a fishmonger at Asda, Jayde moved to London in 2010 to work at cabaret clubs as an Adele impersonater.

Only a few months later, her sister was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Her sister Jenna asked her to keep everyone in high spirits after she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

So Jayde, originally from Bristol, started telling jokes at her sister's hospital bedside.

Then in 2011, she lost her sister. Jayde felt inspired to carry on making people laugh and decided to forge a new career.

She told the Telegraph: "The two or three months after her death were a period of incredibly intense grief, where I felt like I just couldn’t do anything at all. After that, I forced myself to get back to work, knowing that that’s what she would have wanted.

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"For about three years, I was in a horrible depression where I felt completely dead inside, but on the outside I was functioning.

"I was just thinking that I now had to live my life not just for me, but for Jenna. I wanted to do everything that she wasn’t able to do and make her proud. My career went from strength to strength: I won several big awards, played to big crowds at the Edinburgh Fringe and got bookings on the BBC and Channel 4."

She added: "Work helped my family keep going, too. Mum has raised around £13,000 for the Brain Tumour Support charity and running fundraising balls.

"A sense of humour really kept all of us going over the last decade. Even in the worst of times during lockdown, I looked around those four walls of my flat and just thought “Well, I’ve had worse” and laughed."

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