Linda Nolan has incurable cancer and her family have been with her every step of the way – and her sister and Loose Women star Coleen has issued a lovely gesture to the star

Linda Nolan is heartbreakingly living with incurable cancer but one thing’s for sure, she still strives to see the positives in her life. And her sister and Loose Women star Coleen Nolan is helping her every step of the way. In fact, during OK!’s exclusive photoshoot, Linda revealed her New Year’s Eve plans with her sisters. She aid: “There’s a big New Year’s Eve party at Coleen’s. She’s booked us all into a hotel up the road, so it should be great fun.”

Linda – who has moved in with her sister Denise and her husband Tom – she continues to live with the disease that also took the life of her beloved sister Bernie in 2013 at the age of 52. “I try to stay positive,” she insisted. “I’ll use jokes and humour as a way to cope, but of course it’s scary. And I have my days where I’m terribly down.” It’s been 50 years since Linda first rose to fame in The Nolans, selling 30 million records with hits such as Attention To Me, Gotta Pull Myself Together and I’m In The Mood For Dancing. It’s clear the support of her siblings has been a huge help to Linda, who lost her husband Brian to liver cancer in 2007.

Linda has incurable cancer ( 
Image:
OK!/David Cummings)

Coleen is hosting a festive party for the family ( 
Image:
OK! Magazine / David Cummings)
Now, with the help of Denise and their surviving sisters Maureen, Anne and Coleen, as well as brothers Tommy and Brian, Linda has managed to find positives in her situation – though she acknowledges not everyone is able to stay as upbeat as she does about her diagnosis. “I’ve got an amazing family and great friends, some I’ve known since primary school,” she explains. “And I try to get out to walk with them at least twice a week, which is key in keeping me active and staying positive. It gets the endorphins flowing.”

She continued: “But a lot of people just don’t know what to say to me. I don’t sit and talk about cancer all the time. But people don’t realise that. I’ve had people I know cross the road to avoid me. If you don’t know what to say to me, tell me that. It’s OK to say, ‘I don’t know what to say, but I’m here for you.’” One thing Linda’s not keen on hearing, however, is talk of wills and finances, giving a strong insight into her thought process around death.

“When people start talking about putting things in order – I don’t want to talk about that,” she says, sighing. “I don’t want to think about my affairs. It’s so final. Every birthday, I want to make it to the next one. I have to be like that, I can’t be a grey cloud of doom. There are days when I do need to stay in bed, I just can’t ‘do’ the day, but on the whole, I try to stay as strong as possible.”