Yahoo News Coleen Nolan returns to Loose Women
Coleen Nolan returned to the Loose Women panel today (March 27), revealing the heartbreaking news that her sister Linda has been recently diagnosed with secondary cancer.
"It's difficult to know where to start," Coleen said. "About two and a half weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago, as you know my sister Linda – who was on the show recently – had an accident at home, she fell up the stairs – she never falls down the stairs, always up.
"She actually broke her hip [...] she went to hospital and while they did the scan of her hip, they found secondary cancer."
Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, but had been in remission for six years.
"They found a cyst attached to where the break was – her pelvic bone," Coleen explained. "So it was just earth shattering for us initially.
"She's incredible and what they have said is – and the reason I didn't come back – she didn't want anyone to know at the time. She didn't want it to be out there at the time. We all had to get our head around it.
"She wanted me to come back now, she had enough sitting around – get back to work. She's not ready to talk about it yet."
Coleen continued: "She's had to cancel all her future work for now. Her whole life had turned around, she'd had her great facelift, turned a corner from losing her husband… obviously had to cancel the work."
Of returning to work on Loose Women, Coleen added: "She saw the speculation about why I was off, which wasn't true – she didn't want people to start speculating about her.
"I didn't want to lie to any of you. I wouldn't be able to hold it together.
'I went through such terrible anger at the world and cancer. It's so unfair. It's taken Linda 10 years to get her life back' - @NolanColeen pic.twitter.com/oVQXD0pWvh
- Loose Women (@loosewomen) March 27, 2017
"With her blessing she wanted me to talk about it today and say that's the reason. The positive thing is, although they've said it's not curable, it's treatable and it's not spread anywhere else.
"That's the positive attitude. She wants me to get across, obviously it's going to be compared to Bernie, when Bernie died, had the cancer."
Coleen insisted: "Linda wants to get it across she's not dying of cancer, she's living with cancer. They've said it is treatable, she could have years. We have to focus on that."
Coleen's sister Bernie Nolan passed away at the age of 52 in 2013 after a long battle with cancer.
Speaking of sister Bernie's passing, Coleen said: "That was in Linda's mind when they first said it [Bernie's death]. But it was a completely different cancer and Bernie's had spread. Linda's hasn't.
"Like Bernie, Linda's so strong. She's had her down days, don't get me wrong, but she's being really positive. As much as I'm crying now and shaking, we've also had moments of hilarity.
"We have to laugh. That's why it was important for me to come back to work. This is my livelihood. Linda wanted me to come back [to work].
"There's going to be times, even in this show, where I'm still going to laugh and still going to have fun as life has to go on and I have to be strong for her."
Thanks for all your comments for @NolanColeen & Linda. ❤️
- Loose Women (@loosewomen) March 27, 2017
On her own reaction, Coleen said: "I went through such terrible anger, I was angry at the world, angry at cancer, angry for her.
"I just thought it's so unfair, she's just got it all together, it's taken her ten years to finally get her life back and then it goes whack, here you go, now face this. So I was angry as well.
"The other reason I didn't come back was, because of all of that, I got a stress related allergy. So I got taken to hospital with that, they were frightened of anaphylactic shock. I thought, 'no-one wants to see that on the telly."
She added: "We'll all fight as a family and we'll all be there for her."
Coleen admitted a text from Linda to the family was particularly upsetting.
"I think the thing that broke my heart, [Linda] sent a text [to the whole family] at the end of it she put, 'I'm so sorry, I feel so guilty to put you all through this again'," she revealed.
"She feels sorry for us, for putting us through it. But she's not. We'll all go through it together.
"The positive thing is, she's not dying. They haven't once said to her, 'You're dying, you've got six months to live'. What they've said is, 'No it's not curable, it's in that one area and we can treat it forever'. You might live longer than any of us. She wants to get that across."
Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV at 12.30pm.
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