Family to climb hill 100 times in memory of daughter

Laura Nuttall with her sister Gracie
Gracie Nuttall says Pendle Hill was a favourite walking spot of her sister [Family Photograph]

The family of Laura Nuttall say they want to climb one of her favourite walking spots 100 times before what would have been her 25th birthday.

Laura died in May 2023 after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2018 and was given an initial prognosis of 12 months.

After she died, at the age of 23, the family scattered Laura's ashes at the top of Pendle Hill, as they say it was one of her most favourite spots to walk.

Nicola Nuttall, Laura's mum, said: "When you're dealing with something as huge as grief, getting out and walking and being outside and being with the season, actually meant an awful lot to us.

"I think you talk in a different way when you walk. There's just a solitude to it and there's a headspace.

"There's just something about being outside and getting that fresh that cathartic in somehow."

Laura Nuttall's graduation photo from the University of Manchester
Ms Nuttall graduated from university in 2022, four years after receiving her brain cancer diagnosis [The University of Manchester]

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

Despite her diagnosis and years of treatment, she went on to work her way through a bucket 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.

Laura's sister, Gracie Nuttall, said Pendle Hill was one of the families regular walking spots and they would go up the hill whenever they could.

Gracie said: "From being quite young we've come up here. We did it on New Year's Day in the past, she was the one that always loved it. She always used to love it and I was always the one that moaned."

Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill was one of Laura Nuttall's favourite walking spots, her family says [BBC]

She added: "We see a lot of robins and people say robins are like the people we have lost and I always think its nice because its like she's here with us."

Last month, a road in Laura's home village of Barrowford, Lancashire, was renamed Laura Nuttall Way, with the family saying the park next to the road was "one of Laura's haunts".

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