Mourners lined the cobbled streets of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile today to bid farewell to Janey Godley after her death aged 63.
The Scottish comedian passed away on November 2 ‘surrounded by her loved ones’, her management company confirmed earlier this month.
Godley found viral fame with her dubbed pastiches of Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus news briefings as well as other comic voiceovers during the pandemic.
Earlier this year she was treated in hospital for sepsis before learning her ovarian cancer had returned, having first been diagnosed in 2021.
Today grieving fans packed out the Royal Mile as the star’s hearse travelled through Edinburgh on its way to her funeral service, which will be held at St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow on Saturday.
In a post on social media, Godley’s daughter Ashley Storrie said her mother’s hearse would pass through Edinburgh – her ‘beloved Festival home’ – today before travelling ‘home to Glasgow’.
In a statement followng her passing, Chris Davis Management said: ‘It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our client doctor Janey Godley on November 2.
‘Janey died peacefully in the wonderful Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow surrounded by her loved ones. She will be hugely missed by her family, friends and her many fans.
‘She will be remembered for her legendary voiceovers of Nicola Sturgeon during the pandemic, her hilarious and outspoken comedy, but most of all for just being Janey.’
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, her daughter Ashley shared a heartfelt video telling fans of her mother’s death.
‘My mum Janey Godley died this morning at about 7. She was with friends and family and I wanted to tell you face to face because it felt very much what she would have wanted,’ she said.
‘She went peacefully and I want to say a big thank you to all the staff at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice and a big thank you to mum’s found family who were around her through these last horrible days.
‘I want to thank all of you for your kindness and your support. I believe in my heart of hearts that she felt every bit of love you sent to her. I think it kept her going. We got her longer because of all the support and love.’ She ended the video with a tearful sign off of ‘bye ma’.
Godley, who found viral fame with her dubbed pastiches of Sturgeon’s coronavirus news briefings as well as other comic voiceovers during the pandemic, revealed she had ovarian cancer in November 2021.
In 2022 the comedian was given the all-clear and said in a post to X that a scan showed ‘no evidence of disease’.
However, she later announced that another scan had shown signs of the disease in her abdomen but added that she would continue touring.
But the gigs were cancelled in September of this year after she was treated in hospital for sepsis before learning her cancer had returned with added complications.