Coleen’s tears as she reveals another Nolan has incurable cancer
LINDA Nolan has been diagnosed with incurable cancer, her sister Coleen revealed yesterday.
Linda, 58, was treated for breast cancer in 2006 and was thought to be in the clear. But doctors have now found a secondary cancerous cyst on her pelvic bone.
Coleen, who returned to Loose Women yesterday after a break, spoke of her devastation at the ‘earth-shattering’ news, which comes four years after they lost another sister Bernie to breast cancer.
She said she had been away from work after suffering a ‘stress-related allergy’ when she learnt of her sister’s diagnosis, which caused her face to swell up.
Showing a photo of her condition, she said: ‘I got taken to hospital, they were frightened of anaphylactic shock. I thought no one wants to see that on the telly. I’m not saying feel sorry for me, because Linda is going through a lot more stress.’
Coleen, 52, fought back tears while discussing Linda’s diagnosis, but said she and her sister, who found fame in their family band The Nolans in the 70s and 80s, remain optimistic, saying: ‘Although it’s not curable, it’s treatable and hasn’t spread.
‘Linda wants to get it across she’s not dying of cancer, she’s living with cancer. She could have years. We have to focus on that.’ Coleen added: ‘If there are weeks I’m not here because Linda and the family need me, I’m very privileged to have a job where I can do that.’
Explaining how Linda was diagnosed three weeks ago, she said: ‘She had an accident at home and broke her hip, so went to hospital and while they did the scan they found secondary cancer.’
In 2007, a year after Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer, her husband of 26 years, Brian Hudson, died of skin cancer.
Bernie Nolan passed away in 2013, aged just 52, which Coleen said was ‘in Linda’s mind’ when she was diagnosed.
She added: ‘I went through such terrible anger, I was angry at the world, angry at cancer. I just thought it’s so unfair.’