Coleen Nolan has opened out about her reaction to her sister Linda’s cancer diagnosis, claiming that she hadn’t wept in a week since they learned it had spread to her brain.
The singer, 64, who rose to prominence in the 1970s with her sisters in the girl group The Nolans, appeared on Monday’s Good Morning Britain to deliver the news and discuss her newest therapy.
Linda described her diagnosis as “very frightening,” and she admitted that “there isn’t much help for brain cancer” other than radiation, which she will undertake.
In addition, she will take a new medicine that has been in use for a year as a chemo therapy.
‘I’m positive, I’m not giving up,’ she said, adding that she will lose her hair for the fourth time as she fights cancer for the fourth time.
Addressing her elder sister’s reaction to her current diagnosis, Coleen, 58, revealed that the had been ‘made stronger’ by Linda’s positivism.
‘It rubs off on you – you hear her talk and she’s positive about it, so it makes you stronger,’ she told her fellow panellists on Loose Women
‘But it’s so weird because this time, even since Monday, I haven’t cried because I’ve felt really numb
‘I’ve just thought, I’m so sick of it. It just attacks my family all the time, and I know a lot of people go through it but selfishly you think of yourself.’
As he dwelled on the subject, the TV star was then moved to tears, admitting: ‘And I’m scared of crying because I don’t think I’ll stop, so… I’m going to cry now so can you move on?’
She was comforted by Ruth Langsford, who passed her tissues, as well as Janet Street-Porter and Brenda Edwards.
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time in 2005, and was later diagnosed with incurable secondary breast cancer that had progressed to her hip in 2017.
Three years later, she announced that the disease had progressed to her liver, with the discovery of more tumours.
In 2007, she also lost her husband, Brian Hudson, to the sickness.
A source recently told The Mirror about the falls Linda had experienced as of late, saying that her family ‘are extremely worried now and are rallying round to support and care for her’.
‘Linda doesn’t feel safe in her home alone now,’ they said, adding: ‘‘Everyone’s hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.’
Linda’s sister Bernie Nolan died from cancer in 2013 at the age of 52.
Linda and her sister Anne Nolan both announced in 2020 that they had been diagnosed with cancer and were having treatment at Victoria Hospital in Blackpool.
The brothers’ diagnosis came days apart, and The Nolans said in a statement, ‘We will get through this together, as a family.’
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12:30pm on ITV1.
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