Singer, actress and television star Linda Nolan made an emotional wish before spending her last Christmas with her beloved sisters.
The star, who first shot to fame in the 1970s as part of The Nolans alongside her sisters Anne, Coleen, Denise, Bernie, and their mother Maureen, sadly passed away today at the age of 65 after a two-decade-long battle with cancer.
The group, known for hits such as Attention To Me, Gotta Pull Myself Together, and I’m In The Mood For Dancing, sold 30 million records worldwide.
Linda was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and went into remission a year later, but the disease returned in 2016, spreading to her hip and then to her liver in 2020.
In 2023, doctors discovered two large tumours in her brain and she was told it was incurable. The Mirror columnist expressed gratitude for making it to Christmas and remained hopeful for the future, reports the Mirror.
In a frank interview with The Mirror in December, Linda admitted her fears that Christmas 2024 would be her last as she battled incurable secondary breast cancer. “I try to stay positive”, the singer confessed.
“I’ll use jokes and humour as a way to cope, but of course it’s scary. And I have my days where I’m terribly down.”
Linda courageously expressed her Christmas wish to “keep breathing and see another one”.
She defiantly stated: “I thought my 60th birthday would be my last, but I’m still here, five years later. It’s easy to sit back and get depressed about it, but I’m still going. My hope for 2025? To not die, obviously. I just want to be here with my family.”
Despite planning her own funeral, Linda wasn’t keen on discussions about wills and finances.
She said: “When people start talking about putting things in order – I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to think about my affairs. It’s so final. Every birthday, I want to make it to the next one. I have to be like that, I can’t be a grey cloud of doom.”
Tragically, Linda is the second Nolan sister to succumb to cancer, 12 years after Bernie Nolan passed away. The second youngest sister announced her breast cancer diagnosis in April 2010.
In October of the same year, Bernie declared she was cancer-free after undergoing a mastectomy, chemotherapy and taking Herceptin. However, by the end of October 2012, Bernie’s cancer had returned.
Doctors informed the singer that the disease had spread to her left breast, brain, lungs, liver and bones. The late star passed away at her home in Surrey in July 2013, aged 52.
“Bernie passed away peacefully this morning with all of her family around her,” a statement read at the time.
Sisters Anne and Coleen have both faced cancer battles. Anne was first diagnosed in 2000, later facing stage three breast cancer in April 2020, with Linda receiving her liver cancer diagnosis shortly after.
The pair bravely supported each other through chemotherapy sessions, determined to conquer the illness. “I don’t want to die. I love my life so much. I love my daughters, my grandchildren, my friends, all my family. I want to live for as long as I possibly can,” Anne conveyed to The Sun when discussing her ordeal.
After noticing a lump while showering, Anne confronted cancer again but successfully achieved remission following treatment.
Loose Women’s Coleen discovered she had skin cancer in 2023 and initially reacted with incredulous laughter.
She expressed: “My first instinct, typical me, was to laugh hysterically because I just thought that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard anybody say. I’m sick of cancer. Also, my first instinct was, ‘I’m not telling anybody in my family’ because this… seems nothing compared to what my sisters have been through.”
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