Singer Linda Nolan has bravely opened up about her fear of dying and her hospice plans as she continues to battle secondary breast cancer.
The Nolans star first discovered a lump while checking her breasts before going on to receive a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis in 2006. After going into remission, Linda was then given the devastating news in 2017 that the disease had returned and spread to her hip. Last year, she was told the cancer also spread to her liver.
Now Linda has spoken to OK! magazine about her fears every time she receives results from her oncologist. The singer confessed she is scared of hearing the terrifying news that the cancer might have “spread again”.
“I have a CT scan coming up and after that, I’ll get the results from my oncologist,” Linda explained.
“Every time, I worry if it’s spread again. I’m scared of dying. There’s so much to live for. You realise that when you’ve been through all that I have. Every day is a gift.”
Opening up about her current treatment, Linda revealed that some of the tumours in her liver “have got slightly bigger”. She added that she’s now taking chemo tablets and takes “four in the morning and four at night”.
Linda’s interview was given alongside her sister Anne, who has herself battled the disease twice. Anne was later declared cancer-free last year. Whilst their situations are very different, Linda remains determined that her siblings should not be responsible for her care in the future.
“I’ve decided I would go into a hospice, I live on my own, I don’t want them to become my carers,” she said. “I want them to turn up with gin and chocolate.”
Speaking of her own fight against this devastating disease, Anne said that it was difficult to announce the brilliant news that she was cancer-free, not knowing at that time what Linda’s results were.
"Normally I’d have been over the moon, but it was so hard to say I was clear of cancer at the time because Linda hadn’t had her results back," Anne explained.
Though she added that Linda was “great” and didn’t make her “feel bad” at all, Anne described receiving her positive news as “definitely bittersweet”.
As well as their own experiences with the disease, Anne and Linda also tragically lost their sister Bernie and Linda's husband Brian Hudson to cancer. The pair were then themselves diagnosed with cancer within days of each other.
After fighting through such deeply difficult times, the singers have written a joint memoir about their fight against the disease.
Released this week, the publication month marks one year since the sisters found out they would be battling cancer together.
