Maureen Nolan's "shock" as she found out about Coleen's diagnosis from Loose Women

The Gazette has reported a few times in the past few months on Coleen Nolan’s health, after the 58-year-old first announced she had a skin cancer scare on Loose Women back in July.

This week, her elder sister Maureen Nolen spoke to a national paper about how she did not even know of Coleen’s health issues until the Loose Women episode aired.

Speaking to the Mirror, Maureen said: “I didn’t see her announce the news on the show, so suddenly I’m getting all these messages saying, ‘Sorry to hear the news about Coleen’.

“I was so shocked – I immediately phoned her and asked what had happened. I think she now regrets sharing the news on Loose Women.”

The family are no strangers to the horrors of cancer and Blackpool born Coleen later explained she had not wanted to tell her sisters about her diagnosis because it seemed like “nothing” compared to what some of them have been through.

However Maureen told the Mirror that it was in fact she who first raised the alarm about a worrying “bit of skin” on her youngest sister’s neck months earlier.

Maureen explained: “I remember seeing the mark on her neck some time ago and I told her to have it checked, which eventually she did.

“Then they found this mark on her face, which I believe is the start of melanoma, which is the worst kind of skin cancer.

“But she’s using a chemo cream, so it should get better.”

Last month marked a decade since the Nolans lost one sister – Bernie – to breast cancer when she was just 52. The eldest sister Anne, 72, has battled with breast cancer twice, whilst 62-year-old Linda has battled breast cancer since 2006 and recently announced it had spread to her brain.

Mareen also told the Mirror: “I was there when she was given the news – I take her to every hospital appointment. The fact that the cancer is now in her brain is the news she was dreading.

“But there is still a little hope, because the doctor said there is a new wonder drug that he could put her on if the chemo isn’t working.”

Maureen added: “With Bernie, who died in 2013, she had hope right up until the very last day and I think Linda has that same positive outlook… so I’m still hoping for Linda.”