Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan has lifted the lid on the moments before her sister Bernie died, revealing that Bernie broke the tension with a humorous moment as she battled cancer

Loose Women’s Coleen Nolan has revealed how her sister Bernie lightened the mood just before her tragic death from cancer aged just 52.

Coleen and Bernie were two of six sisters who formed part of the Nolans group, but tragedy struck when Bernie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. Just before she passed away in July 2013, Coleen tells the story of how the family were all sat around Bernie’s bedside as Andy Murray played in the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

TV star Coleen wrote in the Sun’s Fabulous: “She came home to die in Surrey, with her whole family at her bedside. There were songs and laughter, too.

“I remember one funny moment when we were watching Andy Murray play his semi-final match at Wimbledon – Bernie was obsessed with it.

Coleen Nolan says she struggled after her sister died ( 
Image:
ITV)

We were all shouting: ‘Bernie, he’s got through! She was heavily sedated and looked asleep.

“We started getting hysterical, assuming the worst, and began singing when suddenly, Bernie grimaced and put her hand up, almost to say: ‘Shut up!

“I went: ‘She’s still a bitch.’ We fell about laughing. Bernie was the life and soul of our family. When she died, it was as if someone had switched a light out in all of us.”

Bernie died on July 4, 2013, three days before Andy Murray won the tournament. According to Coleen, her sister started planning her funeral a month before she died.

She had the service at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool, Lancashire, where the Nolan sisters had performed numerous times. The Loose Women star revealed that she found the years after Bernie’s death a struggle.

Bernie Nolan was just 52 when she died ( 
Image:
Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
She said: “After a funeral, everyone goes back to their lives. Life goes on – that’s the hardest part. In the wake of her death, I had therapy, which was brilliant.

“I took time off work, knowing I couldn’t sit on the Loose Women panel pretending everything was fine. When you’re in the public eye, everyone wants to talk about what you’re going through.

“Strangers were giving me hugs, saying: ‘I love your sister.’ I got to the point where I thought: ‘I can’t’ I’d go into Tesco to buy milk and see news of her death all over the papers.

“I have this fear that if I think about Bernie’s death, I won’t stop crying. So whenever I start to cry, I stop myself. I hate it and it wears me out. In fact, it wasn’t until 18 months after her funeral that I cried again.”

A Hand To Hold: All I’ve Learnt About Grief by Coleen Nolan (£20, HarperCollins) is out now.