LINDA: I’M PREPARED TO DIE IN DIGNITAS

Cancer-hit star terrified of suffering horrific pain

CANCER-suffering TV star Linda Nolan has admitted that if she was in too much pain she would consider ending her life at Dignitas.

In an emotional interview the 59-year-old said she had already thought how she wanted to end it all when the moment arrived.

Linda – one of the six Nolan Sisters – first found a lump in her breast in 2005 and was told she had an aggressive stage three cancer.

After gruelling treatment she was given the all-clear a year later, but in 2017 she was told the disease was back and that she had secondary cancer in her hip. The same condition claimed sister Bernie’s life in 2013. Linda revealed that she hoped to die in Blackpool surrounded by her family, including sisters Coleen, 53, Maureen, 64, Anne, 68, and Denise, 66.

But she said she would go to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, if the pain became too much.

She said that due to radiotherapy she had also developed arthritis, adding: “It is in my joints, my shoulders, my elbows, my wrists, my knees, my feet. “When I stand up initially I have to steady myself because it is really painful.”

She added: “If my cancer deteriorates I would want to be in a hospice, my family are here.

“I know you get to a certain point with cancer when you get to the end that you end up drifting into a coma but if I thought I was going to be racked with pain then yes, I would think of Dignitas.”

She said that if she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s – which runs in her family – she would go to Dignitas.

Linda said: “Knowing that you have Alzheimer’s like our mum had and seeing her go through that where she was frightened, and she didn’t know what time it was, it was so difficult.

“I think if I was facing that, it is something I would consider.”

The Celeb Big Brother star also said she would use the time she has left to fight for a change in the law to allow for assisted suicide.

From My Heart by Linda Nolan is out in paperback on 21st February

DAILY STAR SUNDAY SAYS – PAGE 6