The mum of inspirational cancer campaigner Laura Nuttall is continuing her daughter’s fight for brain tumour patients.
Nicola Nuttall is urging MPs to back an Early Day Motion, or EDM, in Laura’s memory, calling for more funding to beat the disease.
Laura, 23, died five weeks ago. She had been given 12 months to live when she was diagnosed with the condition five years ago.
While having treatment, she worked her way through a bucket list that included meeting Michelle Obama, commanding a Royal Navy ship, graduating from the University of Manchester and presenting the weather on TV.
Laura also paid a visit to 10 Downing Street, where she had a tour before dining with then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid in the House of Commons.
And the politics graduate’s battle inspired comedian Peter Kay to return to the stage after a four-year break. He made several fundraising appearances for her.
As a Young Ambassador for the Brain Tumour Charity, Laura campaigned tirelessly for more research funding to be dedicated to the disease that would kill her.
Mum Nicola, 53, said: “The thing Laura wanted most of all was for this disease to stop taking away people’s lives.
“It’s such a neglected disease and so underfunded. We just feel so strongly that something has to change – and soon.
“Every day more people are getting diagnosed but treatment is not moving on at all.
“Brain tumours kill more children and adults under 40 than any other cancer but get only 2% of cancer research funding. It doesn’t make sense.
“Treatments in the UK have not changed for decades.”
The EDM was put forward in Parliament by Mitcham and Morden Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh – whose sister, Baroness McDonagh, had brain cancer. She died yesterday, aged 61.
The motion invites MPs to commend Laura’s positivity and hope, and acknowledge the need to raise awareness around brain tumours.
It also gives ministers a chance to acknowledge the need to “accelerate the development of new treatment options and increase the amount of research funding dedicated to this disease”.
Nicola, of Barrowford, Lancs, is calling on people to write to their own MP, asking them to sign the EDM to get a debate in Parliament. She said: “This is what Laura would have wanted. She wanted to change things and make a difference. I’m so proud of her.
“The impact her story has had on people around the world has staggered me. I’ve had messages from Australia, the US, Singapore, Costa Rica and Brazil . When I made it public that Laura had died, 10 million people saw the post. That astonishes me. It’s incredible to think that, at 23, her life touched so many people.”
Nicola also spoke of how she and husband Mark, 60, along with their daughter Gracie, 21, are still struggling to come to terms with Laura’s death.
She said: “We’re still a little bit in denial… like she’s maybe away at uni or off with friends. My husband is going through some really old home videos of when the girls were little that we haven’t looked at for years.
“It’s nice to have those memories, but hard seeing them. Losing your daughter at 23 is unthinkable but we have to carry on and do the things she thought were important.
“Laura would be so proud to see her name on this EDM – it’s a wonderful tribute.
“And if it can help improve treatments in some way in the future, that would be the legacy she would wish for.”
