Hollywood superstar Kate Winslet has helped to fund life-saving treatment for a cancer patient, it has been revealed. The Titanic actress enlisted the help of her former co-star and long-time friend, Leonardo Dicaprio to help new mum, Gemma Nuttall.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprioLeo and Kate have raised money for a mum battling ovarian cancer

Gemma, 29, had previously shunned drugs to treat an aggressive form of ovarian cancer after being told it would terminate her pregnancy.

The new mum gave birth to a little girl, Penelope, but was subsequently told by NHS doctors there was no longer anything they could do to stop the spread of her cancer.

However, refusing to give up, Gemma launched a £300,000 fundraising campaign after she was told a clinic in Germany may be able to help her.

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Award-winning actress, Kate, 42 - who has starred in blockbusters such as The Reader and Revolutionary Road - heard about the new mum’s plight and auctioned off three ‘Jack and Rose’ date nights with DiCaprio at the latter’s annual dinner party for his conservation foundation.

Appearing on ITV's 'This Morning', Kate revealed why she decided to intervene.

She said: "I lost my own mother last year in May to ovarian cancer and at the time that we as a family were given a very poor prognosis for my mum after a four-year battle ... we decided to look elsewhere and we also stumbled across these places in Germany and simultaneously I also came across this petition that had been set up on Change.org, campaigning to have immunotherapy available on the NHS.

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"My heart sank. I then found her [Gemma's] Go Fund Me page. I saw how much she needed to raise, at that point she only there was only £9,000. I thought, 'I can't have this happen.'"

The mum-of-three added: "My own mum was very, very unwell and I just thought my mum would be incredibly proud of us if I could do this for another young mum. It was just amazing.

"I started putting word out there. I became determined to raise this money. We got close to £200,000 and at that point I thought, 'It's time to call my friend Leo'.

"He said, 'We will auction off a dinner with Jack and Rose’. And we raised $1.3 million. We did three [dinners]. Half would go to his foundation."