Coleen Nolan opened up about grief on This Morning today (Wednesday August 28) amid an update on her sister’s cancer battle.
Linda Nolan, 65, has shared that her brain tumours have grown and her cancer treatment has stopped working.
She told the Mirror: “I sobbed when my consultant first told me. I know so many people are suffering and going through things, but I thought, just for once, could cancer just leave me alone? My heart sank.”
Linda’s Loose Women star sibling Coleen, appearing on ITV’s flagship daytime series earlier today, admitted her family has suffered “a lot of loss”.
Coleen Nolan on This Morning today
Promoting her book A Hand to Hold, which details her grief after losing sister Bernie Nolan to breast cancer in 2013, Coleen reflected on how her family has lost loved ones.
Coleen pondered: “It’s just a topic that everyone’s terrified of. And yet it’s something we all have in common.
“Whether we like it or not. Hopefully not for many, many years, it’s coming to us all. And we need to be open about it because people grieve so differently. I’ve never met two people who grieve the same.”
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‘There has been a lot of loss’
Coleen, whose mum Maureen passed away at the end of 2007 following an Alzheimer’s ordeal, went on: “I lost my mum and dad. I lost my sister-in-law, I lost Bernie, we lost Linda’s husband [to skin cancer].
“My auntie then passed not so long ago. So there has been a lot of loss.”
Bernie told her she could cry for a fortnight after her own passing – but insisted Colleen would have “get up and carry on with it” after that mourning period.
Coleen admitted that after those two weeks, she still “didn’t want to get up, didn’t want to do anything”.
But spurred on by Bernie’s words, she pushed on.
“You do have to carry on,” Coleen said.
“You’re fine for six months, and then out of the blue it just hits you again.”
Life has to go on, and it does go on.
Coleen added: “The biggest learning for me is that life has to go on, and it does go on. In actual fact, none of it matters. I used to get so stressed and down about things, but now I think: ‘I bet Bernie wishes she was here getting down about a tax bill or her next job.'”
“It puts everything into perspective. I’m not scared to say no any more. If I don’t want to do something, I just say no. Life’s too short,” Coleen went on.
Read more: Coleen Nolan on feeling ‘guilt’ after tragic death of sister Bernie
This Morning airs on ITV1, weekdays, from 10am.
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