Best

Brave Linda battles on

A smiling Linda Nolan stepped out last week in one of few public appearance­s since being diagnosed with ‘incurable’ cancer in March...

- WORDS: RACHEL CUNNINGHAM

She was all smiles as she accompanie­d her younger sister, Loose Woman Coleen Nolan, on the red carpet last week for the TV

Choice Awards.

But in her private moments, Linda, 58, whose face appeared swollen and was relying on a crutch to help her walk, must be terrified when she thinks of what may lie in the months – hopefully years – ahead.

After falling and breaking her hip in March, Linda was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer – six years after being given the all-clear – a diagnosis which she admitted made her ‘scared to death’, though she vowed to fight.

Speaking exclusivel­y to best earlier this year, Linda said, ‘It’s difficult to understand but the breast cancer is like dust particles and they were resting in my hipbone. The fall disturbed them.’

The Nolan sisters are no strangers to breast cancer. Older sister Anne battled and beat the disease in 2000, but younger sister Bernie tragically passed away, aged just 52, following her battle in 2013.

And that’s not the only heartache Linda has endured. She lost her husband of 26 years, Brian Hudson, to skin cancer in 2007, throwing her into a deep depression.

This latest blow must have hit Linda particular­ly hard, having already faced the disease that seems to plague her family. How much tragedy can one person bear? The former Nolans singer admitted earlier this year that she also felt like she was experienci­ng a scary sense of déjà vu. ‘I’m hearing things they said to Bernie. They told her it was treatable, too.’

Treatable, but incurable…

Coleen, 52, has been by her sister’s side since the diagnosis, and she told best adamantly that Linda ‘is not dying of cancer, she’s living with cancer’.

The future remains uncertain for Linda but, as she said, ‘At the end of the day, I have to be strong… what else can I do?

‘I have to try to be positive. I’ve learnt how much there is to live for. Loving people and people loving you is all that’s important.’

While the cancer is not curable, the prognosis offers hope that she could live for years. ‘That’s fabulous news,’ she said brightly. ‘So I will do all the doctors ask me, and keep my fingers crossed.’

So will we, Linda…

‘I have to try to be positive. Loving people and people loving you is all that’s important’

 ??  ?? Linda with sister Coleen by her side
Linda with sister Coleen by her side
 ??  ?? The Nolan sisters: Anne, Linda, Maureen and Bernie Linda and Brian on their wedding day back in 1981
The Nolan sisters: Anne, Linda, Maureen and Bernie Linda and Brian on their wedding day back in 1981

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