The heartwarming way Titanic stars Kate and Leo saved a young mum with cancer
Pregnancy is supposed to be a magical, exciting time for any new mum, but for 29-year-old Gemma Nuttall, it turned into a nightmare when her first pre-natal scan revealed she was suffering an aggressive form of ovarian cancer.
But the UK woman turned down life-saving drugs after being told by NHS doctors they would have had to terminate the pregnancy.
When her perfectly healthy daughter Penelope was finally born, Nuttall was ready to receive treatment – but things had taken a devastating turn. The NHS told the new mum there was nothing more they could do for her and gave her as little as six months to live.
However, Nuttall couldn’t bare the thought of her daughter, now three years old, growing up without her mum and launched a £300,000 ($535,000) fundraising campaign for treatment at a German “wonder clinic” that could save her life.
Soon, Oscar-winning actress and mum-of-three Kate Winslet heard of Nuttall’s story and decided to help in a very special way. Together with her Titanic co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, she auctioned off three “Jack and Rose” date nights, named after their famous characters.
The prizes went under the hammer last July at a private dinner held in St Tropez for DiCaprio’s environmentalist foundation, raising enough money to fund Nuttall’s treatment, which she finished five months ago.
Now, Nuttall has been declared cancer-free. “I can’t thank Kate enough,” she told the Daily Mail.
“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.”
For her generosity, Winslet was presented with an Actors Inspiration Award from the Screen Actor’s Guild in November. “The greatest privilege has been learning how to use my voice to help others,” she said as she accepted the award.
“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.”