'It means the world to me': Cancer patient's mother thanks Peter Kay for comedy fundraiser gig
ITV News Reporter Hannah Miller speaks to Laura, who has cancer, and her mum Nicola about Peter Kay's charity gig and what it means to them
A cancer patient who led Peter Kay to return to the stage has praised the comedian for his kindness and said the gigs were "absolutely amazing", as her fight against the disease continues.
The comedian performed two sold-out sets at Manchester’s O2 Apollo on Saturday to raise money for Laura Nuttall, 21, who has an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.
The student, from Barrowford near Nelson in Lancashire, was given 12-18 months to live when she was diagnosed aged 18 but has received immunotherapy treatment in Germany thanks to fundraising.
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Her mother Nicola told ITV News: "It means the world to me because we were lying in bed at night thinking 'how an earth are we going to be able to do this again' because the tumour came back in March, which then puts you really back at square one.
"I was just thinking, well we're going to have to move, we're going to have to just try and work out how we are going to work it out how we're going to afford it and this just takes the pressure off so much.
"We can not worry about that, we can just worry about the treatment that's going to best help Laura. We're so grateful to Peter," she added.
Laura's mum Nicola tells ITV News Peter Kay's charity gig means the world to her and means her family can worry less about financing cancer treatment for her daughter
Kay returned to the stage after a break from the public eye. Delighted audiences gave him a standing ovation as his matinee set began.
Laura said: "I mean Peter was hilarious as Peter is and the amount of people that turned up there who were waiting in the queues in the rain, waiting to get in. It was just amazing."
The Doing it For Laura gigs were organised in the space of about three weeks after Mrs Nuttall contacted Kay, who she and her husband Mark knew from working at Granada television, and asked if he would do a 10-minute slot at a charity ball.
Instead, he offered to contact the Apollo and see if they had any dates free.
'Peter is such a nice guy to do that for me', Laura says
The comedian was introduced on stage by Miss Nuttall’s sister Gracie, 19, who thanked the audience for "potentially saving my sister’s life".
Her mother said: “Gracie asked right at the beginning to do that, she felt strongly that she wanted to tell people about Laura and her diagnosis and this was a great opportunity.
“They have never been closer as sisters.
“Laura was so pleased that Gracie managed to do it and it was emotional for her.
“Gracie was just absolutely buzzing when she came off stage.”
The total amount raised from the performances has yet to be counted but Mrs Nuttall said about £5,000 was raised just from selling T-shirts on a merchandise stall.
Money for the Brain Tumour Charity was also collected at the venue.
The family say brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer, but receive less than 3% of the funding given to other cancers.
Mrs Nuttall said: "We are fighting to stop that attitude as much as anything.
"There are other things you can do but they’re not necessarily available on the NHS. We want to change that for everybody so they can have the same access to treatments."