A mother who was told she would die after delaying vital cancer treatment until she had given birth has been given the all-clear – after Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet saved her life.
Gemma Nuttall was undergoing her first pre-natal scan when she was told she had an aggressive form of ovarian cancer.
But Ms Nuttall, from Rossendale, Lancashire, refused potentially life-saving drugs because they would have terminated the pregnancy.
Gemma Nuttall, pictured here with daughter Penelope, has been given the all-clear from cancer after Hollywood A-lister Kate Winslet stepped in to help
Ms Nuttall was told she had aggressive ovarian cancer while pregnant. She refused life-saving treatment because it would have terminated the pregnancy
Her daughter Penelope was born healthy but NHS doctors later delivered the devastating news to Ms Nuttall that there was nothing more they could do, reports the Mirror.
Ms Nuttall, 29, was given as little as six months to live and put on end-of-life care.
But Ms Nuttall and her mother launched a £300,000 fundraising campaign after hearing about a German ‘wonder clinic’.
Hollywood A-lister Kate Winslet heard about Ms Nuttall’s story and along with Leo, auctioned off three ‘Jack and Rose’ date nights, named after their characters in Titanic.
The prizes went under the hammer at a private dinner in July held in St Tropez for DiCaprio’s conservation foundation.
And Ms Nuttall finished her treatment five months ago and has now been given the all-clear.
Ms Nuttall launched a fundraising campaign for treatment in Germany. Kate Winslet heard about her plight and enlisted Leonardo Di Caprio to helo
Ms Nuttall said: ‘I can’t thank Kate enough. Without her donations, and the public’s, my story would be very different. We thought it was a wind-up, but then she called and I realised she was serious.
‘I was so nervous but she asked me how I was feeling and how my treatment was going – she wanted to help.
‘I told her I could never thank her enough and she told me not to be daft. She said she had read about my story online, that she had three kids of her own and had thought about what she would be like in that position.’
Charitable Kate won a prestigious Actors Inspiration Award from the Screen Actors’ Guild in November, partly for her work with Ms Nuttall.
Kate, 42, said: ‘I was able to help raise an enormous amount of money and Gemma is cancer free today.’
And receiving the award, she added: ‘The greatest privilege has been learning how to use my voice to help others. Standing up for individuals who don’t have the means to stand up for themselves… helping a person who is dying – she’s still alive by the way – because they don’t have the money that could pay for specialist treatment that could save her life.’
Ms Nuttall first found out she was pregnant in 2013 but doctors found large cysts on her ovaries and tests revealed she had aggressive cancer.
The stars auctioned off three ‘Jack and Rose’ date nights, named after their characters in Titanic. Ms Nuttall paid for the treatment and is now cancer-free
Medics advised her to terminate the pregnancy in order to have life-saving treatment but Ms Nuttall refused.
At 26 weeks pregnant, the mother-to-be was told the cancer had spread to her cervix and she underwent an emergency Caesarean, immediately followed by surgery to remove the tumour.
Penelope was born on March 24, 2014, weighing just 4lbs 5oz. Ms Nuttall started chemotherapy two weeks later and was cancer free for more than a year.
But then doctors at the Royal Blackburn Hospital found a stage four tumour in her head and she had to undergo brain surgery.
An operation went well but the cancer returned and doctors told her there was nothing else they could do.
In May last year, Ms Nuttall flew to Germany and started a six-course bout of immunotherapy, which cost £70,000 at a time.
In July, Kate Winslet’s PR got in touch with Ms Nuttall’s mother, Helen, and said the star wanted to help.
Kate’s help, combined with public donations and Helen selling her house funded the treatment and left Ms Nuttall cancer-free.