Last March, Anne and Linda Nolan – with their bandmate sisters Maureen and Coleen – were on the Mediterranean filming their joyful hit TV series, The Nolans Go Cruising. But within just weeks of returning came some truly devastating news.
“Anne discovered, 20 years after being treated for cancer in her left breast, that she now had a malignant tumour in her right one,” Linda says from her home in Blackpool.
“I had also been treated for breast cancer in 2006 which returned as a secondary cancer on my pelvis in 2017, but it seemed to be under control. However, after coming off the cruise I had an MRI scan and was informed the cancer had spread to my liver and was incurable.
“This news brought me back down to earth with a bump. I kept it to myself for a few days as the family were still in shock about Anne. Also, at the back of everyone’s mind was the awful fact that our beloved sister, Bernie, had died from the disease in 2013.”
Anne, who also lives in Blackpool, says being told she had cancer again gave her a horrible feeling of déjà vu. “I didn’t think, ‘Why me?’ more, ‘Oh no, not again’. I just knew I had to get on with it, like I’d done the first time. I was told it was curable, which came as a massive relief.”
Coleen shares her cancer diagnosis
After watching three of her sisters battle with the disease, Coleen says she is 'sick' of cancer after receiving her own cancer diagnosis.
Her skin cancer was spotted by a dermatologist while she was being treated for something else and he identified her basal cell carcinoma.
Sharing the news on Loose Women, she said; "I went back in and he was very good and he said, 'Look, it's nothing to worry about. It is actually a cancer that doesn't necessarily spread, but you do need to treat it'."
The first line of treatment for Coleen is chemo cream then surgery if that doesn't work.
At first, she revealed she was very reluctant to share the sad news with her sisters, and it's easy to understand why. Her sister Linda is currently living with the disease after it spread to her brain and her other sister Anne has just received the all clear after getting breast cancer or a second time.
The good news is that things are looking hopeful for Coleen, but she's encouraging us all to get any skin concerns or worries checked sooner rather than later.
Linda reveals her cancer has spread
Just a few years on from finding out about Anne's cancer, Linda has received the devastating news that her cancer has spread to her brain. It's frightening news for the 64 year old, as the treatment options are currently limited.
Sharing the news on Good Morning Britain, Linda said. "Obviously that's very frightening because there isn't much help for brain cancer at the moment, apart from radiotherapy which I'm going to be having."
Linda and Anne fighting cancer together
The family finally found out about Linda when she confided in Maureen.
“Maureen suggested it might help Anne to know that she wasn’t alone in this and that changed my mind,” Linda recalls. “Of course, they were going to have to know at some point. I was devastated at the thought of having to go through chemo again – this was the third time for me–but I knew I had to. I tried to make light of the situation to my oncologist and suggested that maybe I could have my chemo with Anne. To my astonishment, he said he’d see if it could be arranged and he sorted it.”
Anne, although worried about Linda’s prognosis, was delighted to hear they would be having their chemo together and their first joint session was in June last year.
“Linda christened us The Chemo Sisters,” Anne recalls. “I loved that. Usually, you’re allowed to bring a friend or family member with you when you’re having chemotherapy but the pandemic put paid to that. Linda and I felt very fortunate that we could be together. My sessions were longer than hers but she would stay with me until they’d finished, which was so nice of her.
I feel my job now is for me to be there for Linda as she goes through this next chapter of her treatment.
“We’d give each other TV recommendations, chat about what the kids in the family were up to and reflect on how the year’s events had crippled our industry. And we’d share items in our lunchboxes which our sisters, Maureen and Denise, had made for us.”
They were also a source of unique support for each other in that they knew exactly what the other was going through.
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“Linda had similar side effects to the chemo as me – for instance, tingling pains and pins and needles in our hands and feet – and we would talk our symptoms through with each other, as well as our coping mechanisms,” Anne continues.
“It made me feel better knowing I wasn’t the only one going through this and that I wasn’t alone.”
Anne started her chemo before Linda and finished her treatment before her sister – in August last year.
“I was there when Anne rang the bell in the ward to show her chemo was over,” says Linda (62). “It felt incredible and inspiring she had reached the amazing milestone, so I was thrilled when I saw her pull the cord. She has come through such a personal battle, not just with her cancer but also with crippling anxiety made worse by horrible reactions to the first lot of chemo and going through the double nightmare of dealing with it all during a pandemic.”
I kept my cancer diagnosis to myself for a few days as the family were still in shock about Anne.
Anne’s prognosis was – and continues to be – very good.
“My oncologist says there’s no trace of cancer in my body,” she explains.
“But that’s not to say I’m discharged. That won’t happen until I’ve been clear for five years. I’m currently taking the drug Herceptin every three weeks for the next year. I’m also taking a treatment to prevent the cancer coming back in the bones, called Zoledronic acid. I have to take that every six months for the next three years.”
Sadly, Linda’s news was not good. “All felt good initially and I prayed like Anne, who was cancer-free, that the chemo had done its work on me,” she reveals. “A few weeks later I was sent for an MRI to check the cancer had been blasted. Sadly, I didn’t get the news I was looking for. The scan showed it had spread and another tumour had grown in the liver. I burst into tears again at the news, which, when it was delivered this time, was made more difficult with being socially distanced from my entire family at a time when all I wanted was a massive hug from them all.
“So my chemotherapy treatment continues to this day. Thankfully, I don’t have to keep going into the hospital every three weeks but can take the chemotherapy in tablet form. I have ten tablets a day – five in the morning and five at night and if you were to shake me you would hear me rattle!”
The sisters’ relationship has undoubtedly been strengthened due to what’s happened to them.
“We’re both quite fiery characters and while we’ve always loved each other there have been times in the past when we haven’t liked each other much,” laughs Anne (70).
“We still have that sisterly bond but there’s an extra dimension to it now and we’re closer and stronger together than we’ve ever been.
“I feel my job now is for me to be there for Linda as she goes through this next chapter of her treatment. Just as she has been for me.”
The Nolans Go Cruising is available to stream now exclusively on Discovery+.
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