We’ve had enough fatalities this year, but flu can be prevented
We might have a Covid vaccine, but singers Denise and Linda Nolan tell LISA SALMON why flu jabs are more important than ever
DETERMINED Linda Nolan is battling incurable secondary breast cancer, but right now she’s joining forces with her sister on another health campaign. Linda and Denise Nolan, who enjoyed huge success in the Seventies and early Eighties singing with fellow family members, are highlighting the importance of getting a flu jab – particularly for people who are more vulnerable to infections like flu or Covid-19, or who live with someone who is.
When Linda, 61, discovered she had cancer for the third time in June – she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 – Denise immediately asked her to move in with her and her partner, Tom Anderson.
“There was no hesitation,” admits Linda. “It was really kind and I would have been lost without her.”
For Denise, it was a totally natural l offer. “It’s just family,” she says. “You u do it because you love them.”
FLU JABS HELP PROTECT VULNERABLE AND AT-RISK GROUPS
BECAUSE of the cancer and chemo, a flu jab was vital for Linda. Living together meant that as ‘flu season’ approached, Denise was also eligible for a free jab.
“Because Linda’s isolating and – I don’t like to call myself her carer – because we live together, I was told I’d get the jab for free, because you do if you’re looking after somebody that’s isolating,” explains Denise, 68. 8
“It’s a no-brainer. The thought of giving flu to Linda is incomprehensible, and my chap has Parkinson’s so he’s vulnerable too.
“Any disease like the flu, if they got it from me, I’d be absolutely devastated.”
FLU CAN BE VERY SERIOUS
EVER-BUBBLY Linda jokes that her older sister won’t wear a nurse’s uniform when she’s caring for her. But, becoming serious for a moment, she stresses: “If I get the flu, I’d probably die. The way things are at the moment, I could get Covid as well and then I wouldn’t stand a chance, because my immune system has been completely depleted. It’s a really scary thing, and when I got the letter to isolate it became so real.”
The sisters, who live in their home town of Blackpool – Linda’s house is only a few doors down from Denise and a couple of streets away from Maureen – say people needn’t be scared of going to the GP surgery or pharmacy for their jab, as “they’re the safest places to be at the moment because they have to be”.
Linda stresses: “It’s so safe, and it’s much safer than getting flu or pneumonia.”
Denise adds: “For a couple of seconds s of discomfort – although al it’s not really dis discomfort – you can prevent som some people being very, very ill or even e dying.
“We’ve had enough of fatalities this year, a and our hearts go out to all those th people who’ve lost family in this awful pandemic, but it doesn’t have to be that way with flu, which can be prevented.”
‘I’D LIKE A FEW MORE CHRISTMASES’
LINDA – who’s currently appearing with her sisters in At Home With The Nolans (Tuesdays, Quest Red) – tries to stay upbeat. “All I want for Christmas is to be around for a few more Christmases,” she says. “That would be the best present of all, to be here for as long as I can.”
She had chemo during England’s first national lockdown, at the same time as her sister Anne, 70, who discovered her own breast cancer had returned just days before Linda found out about her cancer recurrence.
Their other sister, Bernie, died from breast cancer in 2013 aged just 52, and while tests have shown the sisters don’t have the infamous BRCA1 & 2 ‘breast cancer genes’, Linda says: “We were told by one of the professors it’s not just bad luck that three of us have got it – there will be a rogue gene somewhere.
“Maureen, Denise and Coleen have seen somebody about another test; they’re looking into all of that, trying to find out why we get it.”
Until they know more, Denise says: “You just have to be vigilant, checking yourself regularly. And it’s important to look in the mirror as well, because that’s how Bernie found hers – one of her breasts was a funny shape, it had dimpling or something, it wasn’t a lump she found initially.”