Linda Nolan on how laughter is medicine and the family's gratitude to the Blackpool community and beyond

Thankfully, growing up one of eight siblings in entertainment capital Blackpool, both come in abundance.

“You have to be able to laugh - what we do with our family a lot is get through with humour,” Linda said.

That is no small feat for someone who revealed last week she was undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer, having been given the news within days of her sister, Anne, being told her breast cancer has returned, exactly 20 years after she was first diagnosed.

“I think it was someone said Anne and I could be a Right Said Fred tribute act ‘Too Sexy for Our Hair - I’m too sexy for my sisters!”, laughs the 61-year-old singer, actress and entertainer.

Linda said she and her sister were given the shock news by doctors shortly after they wrapped up filming for their new show, Nolans Go Cruising, in March.

They shared the news earlier this month and Linda says the response has been overwhelming, particularly from those in and around Fylde, which she still calls home.

She says: “Absolutely amazing - we’re always overwhelmed when something happens, the response you get from people who have kind of known you all your life really.

“They feel they’ve grown up with you when you’re a performer and especially in Blackpool, it’s our hometown.

“People here really consider us their family and it’s a lovely feeling.

“I was in the park with my friend and we sat down and just so many lovely people, who took the time to come over and say ‘hello’ and say ‘I hope you’re doing well’ - it’s really nice.

“When we get messages from people, just to say they were inspired or it’s given them some confidence in battling their own cancer, made them less self-conscious, then that’s great – especially in these times.”

Anne, 69, and Linda are undergoing chemotherapy at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and even sat side-by-side for their first treatment on June 5.

Anne’s treatment is more aggressive, so far going well, but has left her quite poorly and she is currently giving herself the proper time to rest between rounds.

The pair both say the family could not have done more to rally around and get them through these last few months.

Sister Maureen set up a ‘bubble’ with Anne and their elderly aunty, while Linda, for the time-being, has moved in with Denise, 67, and her partner of 40 years, musician Tom Anderson.

Earlier this year Denise had been touring with her show ‘Music of Judy Garland’, before the pandemic halted all productions. The tour had also prevented her joining her sisters for the new TV show.

Linda adds: “With Covid, it’s just been horrendous. We had such a great time making the cruise programme and we did that the first two weeks of March and we were on such a high.

“Two weeks later, Anne said she had found a lump in her breast and went to see her doctor.”

And she said that since she was first diagnosed with cancer in 2006, which spread to her hip in 2017, she has had to have check-ups every three months.

“It was early May Maureen phoned me to tell me it had been confirmed Anne had breast cancer,” she recalls.

“The good news was it was a primary cancer, new cancer – it was treatable.

“It was half an hour later the oncologist secretary was on the phone to say we want you in for another scan, the oncologist has seen something on your liver.”

Her first thought, she says, was: “I can’t tell anyone when we’ve just had this devastating news about Anne.”

At that point, the only person who knew was her nurse, who accompanied her for the scan.

“After that I called Maureen,” she continues. “She dropped everything but she couldn’t believe it.

“Brian, my husband, used to call our family ‘the cavalry’ - when something good or bad happens, we all come from every corner of the town and meet together and just sit, laugh and comfort. But of course this time we couldn’t - no hugs.

“It made it more difficult for us because it was so unlike the norm.

“There was no question though, from there - the family sorted it out. Maureen moved in with Anne and Denise said you’re going to live with me, which was brilliant.

“They looked after us and still are doing. Family has been amazing. But this is my third time with cancer now - I’m getting greedy.”

Linda was first diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2006. She went into remission only for the cancer to return in 2017. She was told it was incurable.

The sisters will have six rounds of chemotherapy in total. Anne has two more to go; Linda has three.

Grandmother-of-three Anne, will then have either a mastectomy or lumpectomy, most likely followed by radiotherapy.

Determined in her latest fight with the disease, Linda says: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared to death and so was Anne. I don’t want to die - I really don’t.

“We’ve both cried at different times.

“Anne wants to hug her daughters and her grandkids – but then we’re back to Covid and we’ve no immune system to fight anything – so we have to be so careful.

“It’s scary and I wake up in the night and that is when I miss Brian more. He’d have been there to put his arm around me and tell me everything would be okay.

“Humour has to get you through it otherwise you’d just curl up under the duvet and never come out but that means cancer has won.

“No, this is a battle. We’re going to fight it again and hopefully come out the right side of it.”

Linda was married to the group’s tour manager Brian Hudson for nearly 27 years before his death from skin cancer in 2007.

Younger sister Bernie died from cancer in 2013, aged just 52.

Linda says the care she and her sister have received at the Vic has been “wonderful”.

“They’re amazing,” she adds. “Nothing is too much trouble.

“I left my hair to be shaved until the last moment - I’m not going to lie, losing my hair was traumatic and then of course you think you’re being vain.

“But I’ve made my statement now, with the photos - my bald head is out there and it is, I must say, a little bit easier.

“I’ve realised it is okay to have feelings about it, but it’s okay to be bald too because I’m trying to get better.”

Linda adds she hopes sharing their story of cancer will go some way to helping others who might have been left feeling isolated by the disease.

She says: “We’ve always talked about it.

“We’ve always talked about our family life in public and it’s because we have strong family around us.

“But for us to think of someone who might be on their own, enduring not only the physical but psychological trauma of cancer and treatment.

“If us talking about it can help just one person, well, you know what, it’s worth doing.

“It’s our way of giving back because we’ve been given so much from the public, especially Blackpool – it’s our home and has been for so long.

“We have such a lot to be grateful for.”

The Nolans Go Cruising tonight, 10pm, on QuestRedtv