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Linda Nolan reveals why she’ll refuse chemotherapy if her cancer spreads

She's such a brave lady

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Linda Nolan has said she will reject the offer of chemotherapy as she continues her fight against cancer.

The 59-year-old singer has been diagnosed with an incurable but treatable form of secondary breast cancer and has said that if the cancer spreads, she’d want to live out her final months pain-free.

And she revealed it was the trauma of seeing her sister Bernie go through the agony of chemo when she was diagnosed with cancer that made her decide against it.

Grant Buchanan / Flynetpictures.com
Linda was deeply affected by her sister Bernie’s battle with cancer (Credit: Flynet)

She told the Daily Mirror: “If the cancer spreads and they offer me chemotherapy to give me an extra few months, I would turn it down after what Bernie went through.

“She was a fighter, but the last couple of months of her life were really difficult. She was in terrible pain.

“I’d rather have a couple of months feeling OK instead of the chemo making me feel awful. I want to enjoy the last months of my life to the full.”

Part of the hit family group The Nolans in the 1970s, Linda was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer after a fall earlier this year – 10 years after she was initially treated for the illness.

She broke her hip and tests at the hospital revealed the cancer.

The second-youngest Nolan sister previously explained on Loose Women: “There was a crack because the cancer had eaten through the bone, so the top of the bone had kind of fractured off.

“It’s secondary breast cancer which has metastasised which means the cells have gone into my hip. They could have been lying there for a while and the fall just exacerbated it, I suppose.

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“They said it’s not curable but it’s treatable. I remember saying to the nurse, ‘That’s what they told Bernie, though.'”

Her husband Brian passed away in 2007 from the same disease, just one year after Linda was initially diagnosed.

ITV
Colleen Nolan has seen two of her sisters diagnosed with cancer (Credit: ITV)

Linda told Loose Women, which regularly features her sister Coleen, that she’s made decisions about her future based on thoughts about Bernie.

“I obviously think of Bernie every day, everything I’m going through, I think of her. I’ve made decisions because of Bernie. I’ve decided when it comes to the end of my life I want to be in a hospice,” she said.

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The brave star has written an autobiography, From My Heart, and in it she revealed how she’s already chosen songs for her funeral.

The book is available from Thursday.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

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