Peter Kay’s touching gesture on opening night of Manchester residency goes viral

The audience were left emotional after a touching gesture from Bolton-born comedian Peter Kay for a ‘beloved daughter and campaigner’ as he opened his sell-out residency at the AO Arena.

The Phoenix Nights creator pledged that a portion of the ticket sales to his sell-out string of Manchester shows would be donated to a charity in memory of Laura Nuttall, who died of cancer earlier this year.

The beloved daughter and campaigner was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) – an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer – after attending a routine eye test in 2018. 

After she was told she only had 12 months left to live, she went on to complete a bucket list of goals she wanted to achieve including graduating from university, presenting the weather forecast for the BBC, as well as raising thousands of pounds for brain cancer charities.

Laura, from Pendle in Lancashire, also went fishing with Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse, got to meet Johnny Marr and watch Fleabag performed live on stage.

In 2021, Peter Kay came out of retirement to raise money for Laura’s treatment and hosted two sold-out Q&A sessions at the Manchester Apollo called Doing it for Laura.

The money raised meant Laura could travel to Germany for specialist treatment that was unavailable in the UK. 

She had previously had extensive cancer treatment including surgery to remove a tumour but unfortunately, it returned just days later.

Kay announced on Saturday night (September 23rd) he would continue contributing to a charity set up in Laura’s honour.

Due to the aggressiveness of her cancer, Laura had to drop out of university in London and was forced to put her life on hold while she bravely endured a craniotomy to remove the largest of eight tumours. 

She then underwent a gruelling programme of radiotherapy and chemotherapy before her family came across an innovative new treatment available in Germany.

With the help of donations from family, friends, and the wider public through a fundraising page, Laura was able to travel to Cologne in Germany to start immunotherapy – for which she would have to travel back and fourth every six weeks.

She responded so well to the treatment that she was able to continue with her university course. She graduated from her politics, philosophy and economics degree last summer with proud parents Nicola and Mark, and her sister Grace by her side.

Laura continued raising money and awareness for brain charities, as well as promoting the research being undertaken at The University of Manchester’s Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre.

However, her cancer progressed last autumn and the family decided to bring forward their Christmas celebrations to November so they could all enjoy one last one together with Laura.

In a heartbreaking tweet earlier this year, her mum Nicola announced that Laura had passed away, writing: “I’m heartbroken to share the news that we lost our beautiful Laura in the early hours of this morning.

“She was fierce & tenacious to the end and it was truly the honour of my life to be her mum. We are devastated at the thought of life without our girl, she was a force of nature.”

On Saturday night, at Peter Kay’s Manchester AO Arena show, Laura’s mum Nicola tweeted again to thank the comedian for paying tribute to Laura in the form of the generous donation to the foundation in her name.

Sharing a picture of her family, she said: “Such a brilliant night watching Peter Kay in Manchester, we laughed till our faces hurt & my goodness we needed it!

“Couldn’t have been more surprised when he mentioned Laura and her foundation. Thank you Peter you are truly a legend x.”