The Nolan family's tragic 'cancer curse'

Linda Nolan has died, aged 65, following a two-decade long struggle with breast cancer.

The Irish singer, who rose to fame alongside her sisters in the group The Nolans, passed away on Wednesday morning, it has been confirmed.

Devastatingly, she was not the only sister to face a breast cancer diagnosis: older sister Anne, 74, and younger sister Bernie, who died 2013 aged 52, also suffered the disease. 

Meanwhile Coleen, 59, the youngest Nolan, suffered skin cancer in 2023 — a basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and pre-cancerous melanoma on her face.

The Loose Women star has previously admitted checking her body for signs of cancer — a disease that has stalked their family — has become a daily ritual.

Their father, Tommy Nolan Sr, was also struck down, dying from liver cancer in 1998. 

Linda Nolan: 'I just wish cancer would leave me alone...'

Linda, who is the third youngest of the six sisters, was first diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer in 2005 before getting the all-clear in 2006.

But in 2017 she was given the terrible news the disease had returned — there were tumours in her hip, and the cancer then spread to her liver in 2020.

In 2023, she shared the news that two tumours had been discovered on the left side of her brain which left her struggling with her speech and balance.

And in March last year Linda, who had the HER2-positive type of breast cancer, started immunotherapy every three weeks in a bid to slow the spread.

She was also given a new breast cancer drug, Enhertu, which has helped extend the lives of women with the same diagnosis.

HER2-positive breast cancers accounts for roughly one in five cases of the disease and is an aggressive and fast-growing form.

Despite several family members also receiving cancer diagnosis, HER2-positive is not hereditary, meaning the gene mutation can't be passed on. 

In 2022, Linda admitted that the sisters had been tested for the BRCA gene, which is known to dramatically increase the risk of breast cancer, as well as ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer. 

Actress Angelina Jolie famously revealed in 2013 that she'd discovered she carried the gene, and had undergone a preventative mastectomy followed by removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes two years later. 

The Maleficent star's mother, French-Canadian actress Marcheline Bertrand, died in 2007, aged 57, after after eight-year battle with ovarian cancer — which Angelina said spurred her to undergo genetic testing.

However the Nolan sisters discovered they did not carry the gene. 

'We tested for the BRCA gene mutation and we don't have it,' Linda said in 2022. 

'But they did say we'll have a rogue gene somewhere – it's just one they haven't found out about yet. They took our blood so they could use it for testing.'

Appearing on Good Morning Britain last year, Linda revealed that she was being set on a new course of chemotherapy as a result of the tumour growth — and shared the news that she could face losing her hair once again.

She also revealed the physical toll the ongoing treatment was taking on her smile, pointing to a gap in her teeth and exclaiming: 'Look, I've lost a tooth!'

In an interview with the Mirror she admitted she was left 'sobbing' as the doctor delivered the results, saying how she wished cancer would just 'leave her alone.'

'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,' she added. 

Around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK, says Breast Cancer Now.

Meanwhile, roughly 300,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in women every year in the US.

Anne Nolan: 'Being cured is bitter-sweet...'

Anne was the first of the sisters to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. She underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and 'an operation', she said during an appearance on ITV's Lorraine last year.

'After six months of chemo, I was fine, then 20 years later almost to the day, it came back again in a different breast.' 

Anne explained that when the cancer returned two decades later, it was two separate cancers and she underwent more chemotherapy, radiotherapy and another operation.

Holding back her tears, she added: 'I'm happy to say that, I'm clear. I've got another year before I'm actually discharged.

'But I'm clear of cancer at the moment thank goodness. I count myself really, really lucky.'

Bernie Nolan: 'I'm going to fight this...' 

Bernie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 — following Linda's own diagnosis in 2005 — and was given the all clear the same year, after a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Tragically, in October 2012, she announced that the cancer had returned and there were tumours in her lungs, liver, brain and bones. 

The singer insisted she would keep fighting, saying: 'I refuse to sit around like I've got a death sentence hanging over my head. 

'I'm going to fight this for ever. It can get stuffed.'

Her doctors had told her this time, the disease was incurable. Yet they'd also said it was treatable.

'It could have been worse,' she said. 'It could have just been incurable.' 

Bernie Nolan died in her sleep, at her home in Surrey, on 4 July 2013, at the age of just 52. 

Her funeral service was held at the Grand Theatre in her home town of Blackpool, where the Nolan Sisters performed in their early years.

Bernie was later cremated. Her final wish was to be reunited with her stillborn daughter, Kate, and she was laid to rest beside her.

Coleen Nolan: 'We have had so much heartache...'

Coleen, 58, discovered in July 2023 that she had basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and a pre-cancerous melanoma on her face.

The presenter was warned that if left untreated, it would grow into the deadliest type of skin cancer, melanoma — which can spread to other parts of the body.  

'I got skin cancer last year,' Coleen said. 'I had carcinoma on my shoulder which has now gone and had chemo cream on my shoulder so that burned that off.

'And then I've got this tiny bit of dry skin. I've been saying for ages, it doesn't matter how much oil or cream I put on it, it won't go.'

She added: 'But doctors said, "That is pre melanoma, it will turn into skin cancer which is worse that carcinoma". So I'm getting that treated when the tour ends.'

Of her reaction to being diagnosed, Coleen said: 'I'm not being funny [but] I laughed when he said it because I thought, oh well of course I have, cancer loves my family.'

Coleen admitted she frequently checks for signs of cancer because so many in the family have had it. 

'We have had so much heartache...' she said. 'I'm always checking. I still have this thing when I think, what if I have missed it?'