A MARATHON trek has put an East Lancashire teenager a few steps closer to pioneering brain surgery.

Supporters of battling student Laura Nuttall, who has an aggressive form of cancer, have pulled out all the stops to help a £150,000 reach the two-thirds mark.

None more so than her dad Mark's cousins, Joanne Brown, Janine Smith, and Philip and Matthew Blakeley, who plotted a 26.2 mile hike in aid of the 19-year-old's cause, from Langho to Lytham.

Fourteen family members braved sub-zero temperatures, setting off from the home of Mary and Alan Kennedy in Knowsley Road, to complete the sponsored hike.

Mark, from Barrowford, said: "Ever since Laura was diagnosed, we've had the 'Doing it for Laura' appeal.

"But off their own back my cousins came up with this and it's raised more than £8,000.

"There were some blisters along the way but we all kept each others spirits up.

"And when we were in the pub afterwards, and people overheard what we'd done, they came over and made donations."

Laura had enlisted with navy corps at her university, King's College London, when a routine eye test revealed she had glioblastoma.

Later it was confirmed, through CT scans, that she had a number of brain tumours and she has been undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment at the Christie Hospital in Manchester.

Her parents Mark and Nicola, with family and friends, have been making contributions to a bucket list, which has so far included meeting one of her heroes, Everton's Jordan Pickford, going to see Sir Paul McCartney play and skippering a battleship down the River Mersey.

Today she was due to drive an 18-wheeler truck around Silverstone.

Mark added: "People have just been absolutely amazing since the diagnosis.

"We were told that her friends from Skipton Girls School were holding a week of fundraisers and they came back with £5,600."

The treatment suggested for Laura, who is now an ambassador for the Brain Tumour Charity, is an experimental therapy, not currently available on the NHS.

Her fundraising total, since an online page was established in early January, has already topped £90,000.

Donations can be made to the appeal via https://www.gofundme.com/ngdq37-doing-it-for-laura