Peter Kay takes cancer patient Laura Nuttall for lunch at the White Swan at Fence

Comedian Peter Kay has taken a fan with cancer for lunch in a touching gesture.

The Bolton-born star has previously held fundraising comedy gigs in Manchester for Laura Nuttall, who has a brain tumour. Peter has now joined Laura, 22, and her family at the upmarket White Swan at Fence in Lancashire on Friday for a lunch to lift her spirits.

Laura’s mum Nicola tweeted: “Today’s joy has been a very special treat, the most wonderful lunch at @whiteswan_fence with #PeterKay for company. Laughter won’t cure #Glioblastoma but it’s definitely a blimmin’ good distraction for a couple of hours.... [He is] The nicest, most thoughtful and naturally hilarious person. Everything you’d hope he’d be. We’re lucky to have him as a friend.”

The White Swan, where dinner is around £75 a head, tweeted back that, while they had avoided making any obvious garlic bread jokes, they had had a good chat with Peter about the pasties in his hometown of Bolton.

It’s not the first time Car Share star Peter has supported Laura, from Barrowford in east Lancashire. Last year, he held his first gig in four years at Manchester Apollo, to raise money for her brain cancer treatment. Her mum Nicola had met Peter over 20 years ago while working at Granada, and previously told the BBC she received a call out of nowhere asking how he could help when he heard her daughter was ill.

Laura was diagnosed with aggressive brain cancer in 2018 but sadly her mum recently said her tumour had grown back after surgery and the outlook was ‘bleak’.