A trailblazing mum who twice survived cancer before launching the UK's first charity for women diagnosed with the disease during pregnancy has died aged 50. Nicolette Peel was inspired by her own experiences to set up Mummy’s Star in 2013 in memory of Mair Wallroth.
The mum-of-three jointly launched the charity after she was diagnosed with breast cancer when her youngest child, Frankie, was a baby. Nicolette said her own experiences highlighted a lack of support for women who receive a cancer diagnosis during or shortly after pregnancy.
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In a statement Mummy's Star said: "It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of our former Chair and founding Trustee Nicolette Peel MBE who died peacefully earlier this week surrounded by her family. Our thoughts and sympathies are with her husband James and children Joe, Ella and Frankie at this sad and reflective time.
"Along with our CEO Pete, Nicolette helped found Mummy's Star in 2013 after her own experiences being diagnosed postnatally with breast cancer. She took this experience and helped us turn it into something that could help support, advocate and educate around cancer and pregnancy, later retraining as a midwife and trailblazing with her message about informed choice for all women/birthing people who receive a diagnosis.
"It's not that we wouldn't have become what we are today without her: We may simply have never existed without her and therefore would not have supported so many families since then. That is a legacy of the most far reaching kind and for that we will always treasure her influence as a mother, wife, friend, midwife, colleague, trustee and founder."
Nicolette, who received an MBE in the 2020 New Years Honours, was inspired by mother-of-two Mair Wallroth from Hadfield, who lost her fight with breast cancer aged 41 after being diagnosed halfway through her pregnancy. Nicolette later retrained as a midwife at Salford University, before taking a job at the Royal Oldham hospital.
Writing in 2021 Nicolette said: "We do not need to be defined by an incurable cancer diagnosis. We are still the same people as we were and what we do every day matters so much.
"I am a mum, a midwife, a daughter, a sister, an auntie, a colleague and a friend - I am so much more than my cancer! I choose to get busy living."
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