Linda Nolan, 65, has tragically passed after a long battle with secondary breast cancer – and Coleen Nolan, 59, previously revealed how her sisters’ cancer has impacted her.
Columnist Linda first battled breast cancer in 2006, but it returned in 2017 when she was diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer in her hip, which has since spread to her liver and brain. Coleen and Linda’s sister Anne, 74, also battled breast cancer in 2000 and 2020, while sister Bernie died from the disease aged just 52 in 2013.
Considering how deeply her family has been impacted by cancer, Loose Women star Coleen opened up exclusively to the Mirror last year, and revealed that she compulsively checks and tests for signs of the disease. “We have had so much heartache… I’m always checking. I still have this thing when I think, ‘What if I have missed it?’” she shared.
The ITV star added: “Whenever I’m in the shower, I will have a good feel and check. And if there is ever a time when I think ‘I don’t like that’, I will go to the doctor straight away. And they will say ‘It’s fine, it’s a little cyst or an infection.’ But it’s obviously in our family. I hope I don’t get it, but I just want to think that if I do, I’ll get it early.”
Coleen then spoke specifically about Linda, and how Linda’s actions informed her own proactive approach to checking for cancer. “Linda put off going way too long. And she admits that now. She didn’t go straight away, so by the time they found it… it was huge,” she recalled.
Even beyond her at-home checks, Coleen’s desperation to keep ahead of potential cancer has led her to pay for regular appointments with a breast specialist in addition to her NHS mammogram every two years.
“Anne was the first in our family to get it,” she revealed. “There was 20 years between the first and second time, [but] both times, she got it picked up the day she felt something. I remember her saying that it felt like a grain of rice. She never had a mastectomy, she always picked it up early, which proves the point really.
“My breast specialist is £225 a year. People say, ‘It’s all right for you, you’ve got money’. But you could probably spend that in a year on takeaways, down the pub or on cigarettes.”
While the loss of Linda seemed sudden, Coleen and her other sisters were able to be with her in her final moments. In a statement released to the Mirror, her manager Dermot McNamara said: “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Linda Nolan, the celebrated Irish pop legend, television personality, Guinness World Record holding West End star, Sunday Times bestselling author and Daily Mirror columnist.
“She passed at around 10:20am at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on the MCEW Ward. The family said the hospital couldn’t do enough, they were tireless.”
The statement also shared: “In the early hours of Tuesday morning, she went into a coma and into end-of-life care, surrounded by her devoted family. At around 10.20am on Wednesday, she passed peacefully, with her loving siblings by her bedside, ensuring she was embraced with love and comfort during her final moments, aged 65.”
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