Laura Nuttall: Mum vows to carry on brain cancer campaigner's work

Nicola Nuttall said she had received messages of support from all over the world

The mother of "inspirational" campaigner Laura Nuttall, who ticked off a bucket list while living with cancer, has vowed to carry on her work.

The 23-year-old, who was originally given 12 months to live after being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018, died on Monday.

Nicola Nuttall said that after caring for her daughter in her final days, "my job now is to make her proud of me".

She also thanked people across the world for their tributes to Laura.

She said she had received messages from people in countries as far apart as Australia and Costa Rica and had found it "incredible" people were sharing her daughter's positivity in Brazil.

Laura Nuttall (left, with mum Nicola and dad Mark) was given an initial prognosis of 12 months

Laura, from Barrowford, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, following a routine eye test and later found to have eight tumours.

Despite her diagnosis and years of treatment, she went on to work her way through her list of ambitions, which saw her meet Michelle Obama, command a Royal Navy ship, graduate from the University of Manchester and present the weather on BBC North West Tonight.

Mrs Nuttall told BBC Radio Lancashire her daughter had "wanted to be at home, so it was our pleasure to care for her" but admitted it had not been easy.

"It is very hard when you nurse someone at home and you see them right to the end as those images are very strong images and they do stay with you," she said.

However, she said she was "going to focus on other lovely memories that we've made".

"We have made some incredible memories and some people don't get to do those things in a whole lifetime, let alone in 23 years," she said.

"There's a lot to be positive about and lots of amazing things to remember."

She said she was going to carry on with Laura's work with various charities, as "basically, my job now is to make her proud of me".

She said that had begun on Monday, as she donated blood just hours after her daughter's death, because "that's what Laura would have wanted".

"If I hadn't have done it, she'd have said 'Get off your lazy backside, there's people that need that blood and this happening is no good excuse for staying in'," she said.

She also spoke about a letter which Laura wrote to the Year 6 children at her old school in Barrowford as they prepared to move to high school in 2022, in which her daughter told them to "be kind, be brave, be silly, be honest, be happy [and] be you".

She said while she knew people in America and Australia were following Laura's story, she had been surprised to see that after she died, there were "messages from Costa Rica and from Brazil and they were using the words Laura had written for Barrowford school".

"It is incredible that her little life has gone so far," she said.

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