Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The world’s mightiest militaries
She tells of ‘hidden gene curse’
1ST: CHINA
MILITARY DIRECT BOSS BEN SLATER
COLEEN Nolan has met a specialist to discuss a double mastectomy amid fears her family is “cursed” with cancer because of a hidden gene.
Siblings Linda and Anne have both had treatment while the disease killed sister Bernie in 2013.
The singer and Mirror columnist has previously said she was considering a mastectomy but she has now been in for talks with doctors.
Coleen, 56, said: “I spoke to a specialist. I said, ‘Look, what are my chances of this?’ and he said, ‘Incredibly high’. He said, ‘It will be gene related, it will just be a gene we haven’t found.’”
Speaking on Life Stories, Coleen chokes back tears as she watches a video from Linda, 62, who says she fears dying.
Her health battle began in 2006 with breast cancer.
The following year she was diagnosed with cellulitis and a lymphatic obstruction in her arm.
Then, in 2017, came the news she had secondary cancer on her pelvis and last March the singer was told her liver was also now affected and she needed chemotherapy.
Coleen said of Linda: “She’s always strong and positive. That’s the first time I’ve heard her say she’s scared of dying. And that she was crying.
That’s what hit me because she always puts on this brave attitude.”
Coleen also discusses Bernie’s breast cancer death at the age of 52.
She said: “Bernie would not accept any other scenario except she was going to live.
“She convinced us of that as well. We talk about her as if she’s still here and it still does feel like she’s a massive part of our family.”
In the interview with Piers Morgan, Coleen also recalls how Jimmy Savile asked her back to his room after she appeared on Top Of The Pops along with her sisters when she was 14.
She said: “I thought, ‘You dirty old man. As if I’m going to go up there.’
“I’ve got four sisters that would have beaten the crap out of him.”
Life Stories, tonight 9pm, ITV.
I asked him What are the chances? ‘Incredibly high’ came the answer COLEEN ON CANCER MEETING WITH DOCTOR
Sean starred in the ITV soap from 19852005 but decided to leave to become a chef and pursue his passion for cheese. And, in 2009 Sean set up his own firm, Saddleworth Cheese Company, which has its products stocked in Asda.
He also makes an awardwinning blue called Smelly Ha’peth.
Sean, 55, is also a chef who worked under Michelin-starred
Nigel Haworth after leaving the soap. He said: “It was out of the frying pan, into the fire.”
BLAZE A TRAIL Tony now works as a firefighter