Coleen Nolan made her return to the Loose Women panel this morning after taking a break from the show, which many thought were due to her recent marital issues. However, it would seem that she has been dealing with some sad family news as she revealed that sister Linda, who is also a regular panelist on the show, has since been diagnosed with Secondary ‘incurable’ breast cancer.
Looking emotional as she was joined by her fellow panellists, she said: “This is so hard. Ok it’s difficult to know where to start. 2.5 weeks ago, as you know my sister Linda had an accident, she fell up the stairs. She never falls down the stairs, she falls up.”
“She broke her hip. Which was all very… she went to hospital, while they did the scan of the hip they found secondary cancer.”
“They found a cyst attached to where the break was. It’s attached to her pelvic bone. It was just earth shattering for us initially. ”
“She wanted me to come back, she had enough of sitting round. She’s not ready to talk about it yet but because she’s had to cancel all her work for now – she had a great facelift, she’s had to cancel the work and she’s just worried.”
“She saw the speculation as to why I was off, she didn’t want people to maybe start speculating about her. And I didn’t want to lie. With her blessing she wanted me to talk about it today and say that’s the reason.”
The news has come as a shock to many, especially considering the Nolan family lost sister Bernie to cancer in 2013, however, Coleen has pointed out that is not the same.
“It’s not curable, it is treatable, it hasn’t spread anywhere else, it’s just there,” she said.
“She wants me to get across that obviously it’s going to be compared to Bernie, Linda wants it to get across that she’s not dying of cancer, she’s living with cancer. She could have years.”
“Of course. That was in Linda’s mind when she first said it. They also said that to Bernie initially. Linda is so strong, she’s being really positive and as much as I’m crying now, we’ve also had moments of hilarity.”
Coleen also revealed that the family tragedy had taken it’s toll on her.
“I got a stress related allergy. I look like I’d done 10 rounds,” she explained.
Please send your prayers and well-wishes to the Nolan family during this terrible time, by tweeting us at @CelebMix