Singer Linda Nolan has spoken openly about her desperate wish that she wasn’t dying from incurable cancer.
In her searingly honest column, Linda admitted that she’s turned to her sisters for support during this tough time.
Speaking in The Mirror, Linda said: “My illness is never far away. I lay on the coach with Denise the other day to watch a movie and said: ‘I wish I wasn’t dying.’ The sudden thought swept over me of losing all this. I couldn’t help saying it. She said: ‘We will all have to die though’, and quietly we moved on.”
Linda’s sisters’ support
Singer and TV star Linda, 64, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. It returned as incurable secondary cancer in her hip in 2017 and by 2020 had spread to her liver. Doctors have since found tumours in her brain, too.
Now, Linda is relying on the support of her famous sisters. She’s moved in with sister Denise and attends all her hospital check-ups with sister Maureen.
Linda said: “My sisters have stepped right up to face this alongside me. While some friends have distanced themselves – I understand that – my family has been brilliant. I called Denise ‘Maureen’ the other day. She just looked at me. I said: ‘You’re not called Maureen are you?’ Muddling my sisters up isn’t a great sign. It’s obviously the cancer on my brain. Denise leaves four calendars around for me because I draw a blank on what day it is. It is like our mum’s Alzheimer’s.”
However, Linda is determined to remain positive and is thrilled that her hair has started to grow back.
She said: “If I stroke my head, it feels like velvet. You can never predict what cancer will throw at you, but this week, it’s a definite silver lining.”
The Nolans’ cancer journey
Four of the Nolan sisters have been diagnosed with cancer over the years.
Bernie died of breast cancer aged 52 in 2013. Linda’s own cancer returned as secondary breast cancer in 2017, and her sister Ann is currently in remission after successful treatment for cancer twice.
Loose Women star Coleen Nolan, 58, was diagnosed with skin cancer earlier this year. However doctors told her that it’s “nothing to worry about” and is a “cancer that doesn’t necessarily spread” but does need treatment.
Coleen said: “I’m sick of cancer and also, my first instinct was, I’m not going to tell anybody in my family because this that I’ve got at the moment seems nothing compared to what my sisters have been through.”
Read more: Linda Nolan reveals ‘milestone’ since cancer diagnosis.
Head over to our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix to have your say.