Coleen Nolan: My sister Linda has incurable cancer
SINGER Linda Nolan has been struck down with incurable cancer, her sister tearfully revealed yesterday.
The former West End star, who found fame with The Nolans in the 1970s, received life-saving treatment for breast cancer in 2006.
But youngest sister Coleen, 52, said that after years in remission Linda, 58, had three weeks ago been diagnosed with secondary cancer.
Making her return to the ITV show after an extended break, Coleen told Loose Women how her sister had given her blessing to deliver the heartbreaking news.
She said: “Linda had an accident at home, where she fell on the stairs and she broke her hip.
“She went to hospital and when they did the scan they found secondary cancer.
“The positive thing is, although it is not curable, it is treatable and it hasn’t spread anywhere else.
“Linda wants to get it across that she isn’t dying of cancer because it is treatable and she could have years, so we have to focus on that.”
Coleen and Linda lost their sister Bernie to breast cancer in 2013.
Speaking of Bernie’s death, Coleen said: “That was in Linda’s mind when they first said it. But it was a completely different cancer and Bernie’s had spread.
“Linda’s hasn’t. Like Bernie, Linda’s so strong.”
Linda was forced to pull out of a starring role in the musical Blood Brothers to undergo chemotherapy after her original diagnosis in February 2006.
In 2007, her drummer husband Brian died aged 50 in the couple’s home town of Blackpool following a battle with skin cancer.
Coleen said the new diagnosis came just as Linda had turned her life around following her loss.
Fighting tears, she said: “It’s taken her 10 years to finally get her life back and then it goes, ‘Whack, here you go, now face this’.
“I went through such terrible anger, I was angry at the world, angry at cancer, angry for her.
“I just thought it’s so unfair, she’s just got it all together.
“She didn’t want it to be out there. We all had to get our heads around it.
“And we’ll fight as a family. So if there are weeks I’m not here, it’s because Linda and the family need me.
“I’m very privileged to have a job where I can do that because some people don’t.”
LINDA NOLAN has been diagnosed with incurable secondary cancer. She was previously treated for breast cancer in 2006, the disease that also killed sister Bernie in 2013. During their long careers the Nolans have brought joy to millions and how awful that they have suffered such tragedy. We can only join Linda’s many fans in sending her our thoughts and best wishes.