CJD grievances to get TV airing

The final days of Zoe Jeffries' illness were shown on television

The mother of Britain's youngest CJD victim will use a Christmas Day television address to criticise politicians who she blames for her daughter's death.

Helen Jeffries' will give Channel 4's alternative Christmas message at 1500GMT on Monday, the same time that BBC and ITV viewers will see the Queen delivering her traditional broadcast.

Millions of people watched the final days of Mrs Jeffries' 14-year-old daughter, Zoe, in October, as she lost her two-year battle against the human form of mad cow's disease.

Mrs Jeffries, of Wigan, Lancashire, a widow with three younger children, will tell the nation in strong terms how she feels about her daughter's death and those who she holds responsible.

In the pre-recorded address, she says: "We were told by the politicians not to worry about it. How I wish I hadn't listened.

Zoe Jeffries was Britain's youngest to die from CJD

"I lie awake at night thinking about what the politicians have done to my daughter and I just wonder if they can sleep at night.

"Do they feel the anger that I feel, do they feel remorse? I hope so, because they have put us where we are now."

Talking about watching her own child die, Mrs Jeffries says: "It was as if she had gone to bed one person and got up a different person.

"The illness itself is more than anybody can cope," she said.

"I feel like somebody's killed my child and I want to know who's done it."

Channel 4's Alternative Christmas Message has been broadcast since 1993.

Previous speakers have included the parents of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, Quentin Crisp, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Ali G.