The Nolan family’s tragic ‘cancer curse’: how devastating disease struck three sisters – while three others escaped

Linda Nolan has died at the age of 65 after a twenty-year battle with breast cancer.

The Irish singer, who rose to fame with her sisters in the group The Nolans, died on Wednesday morning, her family confirmed.

Sadly, she wasn’t the only sister to face a breast cancer diagnosis: older sister Anne, 74, and younger sister Bernie, who died in 2013 at the age of 52, also suffered from the disease.

Meanwhile, Coleen, 59, Nolan’s youngest, suffered from skin cancer in 2023 – a basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and a precancerous condition on her face.

The Loose Women star has previously admitted that checking her body for signs of cancer – a disease that has haunted their family – has become a daily ritual.

Their father, Tommy Nolan Sr, was also affected and died of liver cancer in 1998.

Linda Nolan: ‘I wish cancer would leave me alone…’

Linda, the third youngest of six sisters, was first diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2005, before receiving the results in 2006.

But in 2017 she received the devastating news that the disease had returned: there were tumors in her hip and the cancer then spread to her liver in 2020.

In 2023, she shared the news that two tumors had been discovered on the left side of her brain, causing her to struggle with her speech and balance.

And in March last year, Linda, who had the HER2-positive form of breast cancer, started immunotherapy every three weeks in an attempt to slow the spread.

She also received a new breast cancer drug, Enhertu, which has helped extend the lives of women with the same diagnosis.

HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for about one in five cases of the disease and is an aggressive and fast-growing form.

Despite several family members also being diagnosed with cancer, HER2 positive is not hereditary, meaning the gene mutation cannot be passed on.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain last year, Linda revealed she would undergo another round of chemotherapy as a result of the tumor growth – and shared the news she could lose her hair again.

She also revealed the physical toll the ongoing treatment was taking on her smile, pointing to a gap in her teeth and exclaiming, “Look, I’ve lost a tooth!”

In an interview with the Mirror she admitted to “sobbing” as the doctor delivered the results, saying she wished the cancer would “just leave her alone.”

‘I cried when my advisor first told me. I know so many people are suffering and going through things, but I thought, can cancer just leave me alone for once? My heart sank,” she added.

Around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in Britain every year, says Breast Cancer Now.

Meanwhile, approximately 300,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women are diagnosed each year in the US.

Anne Nolan: ‘Being healed is bittersweet…’

Anne was the first of the sisters to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. She underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and “an operation”, she said during an appearance on ITV’s Lorraine last year.

‘After six months of chemo it went fine, but 20 years later, almost to the day, it came back in another breast.’

Anne explained that when the cancer returned 20 years later, it was two separate cancers and she underwent further chemotherapy, radiotherapy and another operation.

Holding back tears, she added: “I’m happy to say that, I’m clear. I still have a year before I’m actually fired.

‘But fortunately I am currently cancer free. I consider myself really, really lucky.’

Bernie Nolan: ‘I’m going to fight this’

Bernie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 – after Linda’s own diagnosis in 2005 – and got the results the same year, after a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Tragically, in October 2012, she announced that the cancer had returned and that there were tumors in her lungs, liver, brain and bones.

The singer insisted she would keep fighting, saying: ‘I refuse to sit around like I have a death sentence hanging over my head.

“I’m going to fight this forever. It could get crowded.”

Her doctors had told her this time that the disease was incurable. Yet they also said it was treatable.

“It could have been worse,” she said. “It could have just been incurable.”

Bernie Nolan died in her sleep, at her home in Surrey, on July 4, 2013, aged 52. Nolan’s funeral service took place on July 17, 2013 at the hospital and she was later cremated.

Her dying wish was to be reunited with her stillborn daughter, Kate, and she was buried next to her.