My daughter wanted to change the world for the better… and she did
Laura Nuttall’s inspirational bucket list included meeting Michelle Obama, performing live with Peter Kay and spreading awareness of the aggressive brain cancer that would take her life at 23. Now her mother Nicola has taken up the baton
WHEN Nicola Nuttall attended an awards ceremony honouring community champions this month, her thoughts instinctively turned to her daughter. “I thought, ‘Oh, Laura would have absolutely loved this’,” smiles Nicola bravely, recalling projects which included addressing loneliness among MS sufferers and developing a test to stop babies going deaf.
Her eldest child became known to millions as an inspirational campaigner, who achieved an extraordinary bucket list of adventures before her death aged 23 from brain cancer on May 22 last year. Laura was expected to only live for one year after her initial diagnosis in 2018 but defied doctors’ expectations by living another four with vigour.
Her determination meant she graduated with a 2:1 in politics, philosophy and economics at the University of Manchester in July 2022 after taking a break for treatment.
Two weeks ago, Nicola attended the university’s Make a Difference Awards for social responsibility with her husband Mark and daughter Gracie, 22, to receive Laura’s posthumous award for increasing awareness and fundraising for research into the disease.
“She was so passionate about changing the world for the better,” beams Nicola, 54. “She used to float into the sitting room, watch the news on TV and say, ‘Right, what can we do about what’s going on?’ If she were around now, she’d be explaining the PalestinianIsraeli conflict to us in fine detail.”
Nicola, who runs a children’s play centre, is speaking from her home in the village of Barrowford in rural Lancashire as she releases her memoir, The Stars Will Still Be There. It tells the story of Laura’s four-year brain-cancer battle and her amazing bucket list, which included meeting Michelle Obama, piloting a Royal Navy ship and presenting the weather.
But the book also details the 23-year-old’s incredible stoicism. She was a “massively ambitious” teenager, Nicola recalls, who wanted to be a diplomat or a spy.
“She always had a plan and knew what she needed to do to realise it. She taught herself Persian, because she thought that would be good for the diplomatic service.
“After feeling she was a bit shy, she joined a public speaking group in Burnley where she was the youngest – probably by a good 50 years.”
Before her cancer diagnosis, Laura found herself a political internship in Chicago, during midterm elections in the US. She loved driving and completed an advanced driving course. She also ran a marathon while studying for her A-levels – which she passed with three A grades.
AFTER her diagnosis, she reflected that she did not want people just to focus on her cancer, “because what is the point in that?” “What sort of legacy will I leave if I just focus on myself and not others?” she said. “The day I was diagnosed with brain cancer, I just thought, ‘I’ve got two options... I could say all right, that’s fine, I’m going to sit here and die or am I going to do something about it and stay positive?’ and that is what I chose to do.”
Nicola’s face lights up at her daughter’s memory. “She was so disciplined, always trying to be the best she could be. If there was a certificate or a prize, she was there.”
But in 2018, just after starting her International Relations degree at King’s College, London, Laura began to get bad headaches. Tests revealed that she had a number of brain tumours.
“After hearing the diagnosis, everything felt different. We had to bring Laura home from university, find out all about the treatment options, tell my mother and father – who’d lost my sister, also called Laura, 45 years earlier,” says Nicola. “It was like stepping through the front door into a hurricane.”
Subsequent investigations and surgery revealed Laura had Diffuse Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive stage four brain cancer. Fewer than five per cent of sufferers live more than five years. Laura, however, remained resolute.
“She just basically thought, ‘Right we’d better get on with things’,” says Nicola. “There was no drama, I don’t think there were even any tears. Her viewpoint was, ‘Well, if it’s not me, it would be somebody else.’”
Her focus became ticking off an ever-expanding bucket list. Thanks to increasing interest in her story, it grew from more typical experiences such as sky diving and tea at The Ritz to meeting the panel and watching a recording of Question Time, going fishing with Bob Mortimer and dancing in front of thousands during a Peter Kay show.
Laura’s condition meant she was no longer allowed to drive on roads. But she found herself operating everything from monster trucks to a tank and doing laps of Silverstone in a supercar with Top Gear’s Chris Harris. British Airways even flew her out to South Africa as a gift during part of its centenary celebrations, where she drove a 10-seater safari vehicle in a thunderstorm.
“We came to a big, muddy slope and it looked like we might not make it up,” says Nicola. “Laura could barely see through the rain, but she just ploughed on up, laughing her head off, surrounded by wild animals and wild weather.”
Laura also spent time with the police, learning how to shoot guns. “She was very accurate and the target sheet went straight up on her bedroom wall,” chuckles Nicola. “She was still working on wanting to be a spy.”
Despite numerous rounds of debilitating chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Laura remained determined and high-achieving. She took cannabis oil to help her appetite and mood – sometimes a little too much.
“We’d get the dose a bit wrong and she’d become ‘Hilary’ – ‘High Laura’,” Nicola laughs. “She’d giggle a lot and agree to anything – much of which she couldn’t remember the next day.
“She had a special Hilary Spotify playlist which she would dance around the house to. It was never good if Hilary appeared just before an appointment or lecture.”
Laura’s other big focus was raising awareness about brain cancer.
“She physically went round to lots of GP surgeries and dentists and schools, with her younger sister Gracie. She handed out thousands of British Tumour Charity’s Head Smart cards showing people symptoms to
watch out for, empowering them to not be fobbed off by GPs, as happens too often,” says Nicola.
Incredibly, she even saved the lives of others. “One woman recognised the signs in her daughter, who was then treated and is now training as a children’s nurse.”
Laura also helped raise thousands of pounds for brain cancer research, appeared at numerous events and shared her experiences on TV and radio. And she organised a group to represent the Brain Cancer Charity at the Manchester Pride parade.
“Her message of positivity has spread all over the world, too,” adds Nicola.
On her death, the Nuttalls received well wishes from as far away as Costa Rica and Australia. Laura was an inspiration to those around her, too.
“She finished her degree despite having to go to Germany for immunotherapy treatment for five days every six weeks. She would be vomiting and weak but insisted on going to lectures and never asked for an essay extension,” says Nicola. “Even last April, she was applying for a Masters in security and terrorism, at a time when she couldn’t make it to the bathroom by herself.”
IT’S NOW a year since her beloved daughter died. “Her last few days were horrific,” Nicola recalls. “To see someone so talented and clever unable to write a word, speak or even eat – aged just 23.”
Laura’s physical presence may be gone but Nicola keeps her memories close by.
“She was part of the furniture in this house,” she tells me. “I still see her everywhere. She was always munching carrots. Gracie laid some on her memorial bench in the local park, recently.
“Our family is a bit wonky now. Food servings are made for four. Tables have four chairs. We’re lucky that my brother Neil has two young children. You can’t be too preoccupied when you’re with a four-year-old and a two-year-old.” The pain of losing a child is something most parents will never recover from entirely. Yet Nicola takes comfort from Laura’s courage and the positive effect it had on others.
“Her illness and death have helped me to see the best of people, including on social media,” she says. “The donations to her treatment we had and the offers for her to complete an adventure on her bucket list were amazing. Laura’s primary school has had a ‘Be More Laura’ day to raise funds.
“They are going to have a bench too, ‘Laura’s bench’, where you can sit if you’re feeling a bit lonely.”
Her daughter Gracie was 16 when Laura received her terminal diagnosis.
With her energies focused heavily on Laura, Nicola feels she “took her eye off the ball a bit” with Gracie. Now the pair regularly walk up nearby Pendle Hill together in Laura’s memory.
“We were going to do it 25 times before Laura’s 25th birthday, but now we’re aiming for 100. It’s ring-fenced time when we can talk and feel much more connected to nature and the passing seasons.” As we speak, it’s overcast in Barrowford, but Nicola reckons “it’ll soon burn off”. She and Gracie are already planning to take on Pendle Hill again later in the day.
The Be More Laura Foundation, set up by her family, is continuing her work, collaborating with organisations like the Brain Tumour Charity, the Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre in Salford and the Institute of Cancer Research, to identify and help fund promising research. It has already given grants and donations of £85,000 to research projects.
“Laura would not be happy if we said ‘Well, we’ve lost her – that’s the end of the story,’” says Nicola. “Brain cancers are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, but get just two per cent of the research funding.
“Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, which generally only affects children, killed [NASA astronaut] Neil Armstrong’s daughter in the 1960s but still has no cure.
“Leukaemia used to be the biggest cancer killer of children. Now it’s not, because of investment in research. Things need to be better around brain cancer. These children are precious.”
LAURA’S treatment in Germany used dendritic cells that help the body’s immune system recognise and attack tumours. But the treatment isn’t on the NHS and currently costs £250,000 – which the Nuttalls could only afford due to public donations.
“But with more research and trials, it could make a big difference,” says Nicola.
She is also hopeful about the development of other treatments. Dundee-based consultant and researcher Kismet Hossain-Ibrahim hopes to differentiate between healthy tissue and tumour cells – and use ultrasound to blast the latter.
Nicola wants to see more genome sequencing to identify mutations in brain tumours for targeted treatments.
She is working with the charity Our Brain Bank to urge the NHS to make it a more routine part of brain cancer diagnosis.
So much of her time is spent trying to help fund the science that will help people with cancer to live longer. But she doesn’t see it as hard work. “We have been shown such kindness since Laura was diagnosed – and since she died,” she explains. “The foundation is about giving some of that back. If I keep working towards improving things for those that come after Laura and our family, that’s the least I can do, isn’t it?”
● The Stars Will Still Be There: What My Daughter Taught Me About Love, Life And Loss, by Nicola Nuttall (HarperCollins, £20) is out now.Visit expressbookshop. com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over £25. To donate to the Be More Laura Fund, visit bemorelaura.com