Linda Nolan’s heartbreaking plea over ‘last-ever Christmas’ amid tragic cancer battle

The food is prepped, and the presents are wrapped. But this Christmas will be bittersweet for Linda Nolan, who admits she’s scared it will be her last, as she continues to live with incurable cancer. When we catch up with the singer the morning after our exclusive festive shoot, we’re alarmed to learn she’s just suffered another fall, one of many this year.

“My legs just gave way from under me,” she tells us, matter-of-factly. “We’ve got five bath mats down on the bathroom floor, but it didn’t matter. I just went.” For Linda, 65, such medical emergencies are now commonplace, as she deals with a harsh diagnosis of secondary breast cancer, which spread to her hip, liver and brain. Despite moving in with her sister Denise and her husband Tom, accidents are inevitable as her body continues to live with the disease, which also took the life of her beloved sister Bernie in 2013 at the age of just 52.

“I try to stay positive,” Linda insists. “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.” Linda bravely tells us her Christmas wish is to “keep breathing and see another one,” and despite apologising for her slightly slurred speech (“The cancer’s in my brain, I’m not drunk, I promise,” she laughs), there’s zero self-pity. Instead, Linda keeps us smiling throughout our chat, as she lets us in on her festive plans with her sisters, including Loose Women star Coleen.

“There’s about 20 of us coming over, and we’ll all bring food to the table and get together,” she says. “We’ll raise a glass for Bernie, my Aunty Theresa and our mum and dad. Coleen will be with her family on Christmas Day, but we’ll see her on Boxing Day. And there’s plans for a big New Year’s Eve party at hers, too. She’s booked us all into a hotel up the road, so it should be great fun.” For Linda, the holiday season has always been a time of magic and joy, so it’s little wonder she’s looking forward to the big day.

“I’ve always loved Christmas, my mum and dad would always make it so special for us,” she explains. “And that’s carried on all our lives. I still shout, “He’s been!” every Christmas morning, like I did when I was little. It’s so lovely to be with the people we love on a special day. We’ll eat, drink and sing carols. And I should point out, I won’t be cooking. I have cancer, that’s my excuse,” she adds, with a wink.

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. After one fall which left her “looking like I’d gone five rounds with Michael Tyson”, Denise and Tom insisted Linda move in with them, just five doors down the road.

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. 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 and every Christmas, I want to make it to the next one. This year, for instance, I will certainly raise a glass and say, ‘Here’s to 2025.’ I have to be like that, I can’t be a grey cloud of doom. There are days where 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.”

We ask Linda what scares her the most about her situation. “Physically it’s the bathroom – that still frightens the life out of me,” she says. “Just slipping again, I hate the thought. But mentally, well, of course it’s distressing to be ill, to worry it’s your last Christmas. Or to fall and be worried no one will be there to pick you up. But I’m still here and enjoying life. We have to pray I keep going.”

Linda is currently on a treatment of Enhertu, a groundbreaking drug which is available on the NHS in England and Wales on a selective basis dependent on certain medical eligibility. Linda is supporting the fight to make it available to every patient who is medically eligible. “I’ve been so very lucky to have it,” she says, adding that it’s devastating older women aren’t approved to have it yet. “I’m hoping that will come. Apparently you can’t get it if you’re an older person. That makes no sense to me, older people have every right to live.”

However, ask her for more info on her medication and Linda just laughs. “When Bernie was getting her treatment, she knew every word and every spelling of every tablet she was taking. With me, if they tell me to take it, I’ll take it. I don’t need to know all the ins and outs, I’ll just do what I’m told.”

The course of treatment, along with her chemotherapy, has left Linda with no hair, which was something she was initially devastated about. However, now, as she recalls a story from Halloween, she seems at peace with her appearance.

“So I managed to knock some of my teeth out a few weeks back,” she says. “It was just before Halloween and I’d had another fall. Anyway, these children came to Denise’s door, trick or treating, and I’m there, bald as anything, no teeth – and these poor little girls ran away screaming. I couldn’t stop laughing. I love Halloween and they actually thought I was a witch. A real one!”

The warmth and positivity in Linda’s voice is infectious. Here is a lady who clearly loves life and sees the joy
in it, even when children run screaming from her. Even with everything she’s going through, Linda is determined to make the most of every moment. “I thought my 60th birthday would be my last, but I’m still here, five years later,” she says defiantly.

“It’s easy to sit back and get depressed about it, but I’m still going. My hope for 2025? To not die, obviously. I just want to be here with my family. I want us all to be here next year, that’s the goal.”

Shot on location at Ribby Hall Village, visit ribbyhall.co.uk