Peter Kay's 'wonderful kindness' revealed as he makes comeback to raise money for woman with brain cancer

28 July 2021, 12:28

The mother of 21-year-old student Laura Nuttall, who is suffering with a rare form of cancer, has revealed how Peter Kay suddenly offered to return to the stage for a number of charity gigs to help raise money.

Nicola Nuttall has opened up about the "incredible" moment comedy legend Peter Kay called them up and asked how he could help her family.

She said that her family is "beside themselves with excitement" that the Bolton comedian has agreed to return to the stage for a couple of charity gigs in her daughter's honour.

Peter - who has taken a hiatus from public life and live performance for the past three years - will host two live Q&As to raise monete for Laura Nuttall, from Barrowford, who has glioblastoma multiforme.

Her mother Nicola and father Mark have spoken of how they first met Peter when they were working at Granada Television nearly two decades ago, saying they received an unexpected call from him in January 2019 after Laura was diagnosed.

Nicola told PA: “He just called up out of the blue and said, ‘How can I help?’ So we’ve met with him a few times, we’ve been out for lunch with him, but obviously Covid put paid to any fundraising that we can do.

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"So now, the coast is clear and it’s all happened in a bit of a flurry but it’s phenomenal. We’re so excited about it. And it’s so wonderful he can do this for us, just incredible.”

The special shows will take place at the O2 Apollo Manchester on August 7, with tickets going on sale on July 30 at 9am.

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Nicola added: "Laura is having immunotherapy in Germany, a treatment that we can’t get in the UK. There is very, very little treatment available for glioblastoma.

“She’s also having a dendritic cell vaccination, which is where cells from the tumour that was removed from Laura are turned into a vaccine to educate the body as to what they need to be looking at, in a very basic sense, and each vaccine in that programme is £27,000.

“It’s five grand to transport the tissue and everything is just so expensive. And getting out to Germany is virtually impossible as well.

“So it will enable us to carry on going down this route and keeping Laura well, because she’s doing brilliantly at the moment, but also to raise awareness for the Brain Tumour Charity and do some fundraising for them as well at the same time.”

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Laura has just completed her second year at Manchester University, and will be in attendance at the Q&As with her family.

Her GoFundMe page has already raised £160,000.