Linda Nolan has said she ‘was suicidal’ after the death of her husband Brian Hudson.
Linda, 62, lost Brian to skin cancer in 2007 when he was 60, just one year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time.
The former singer – whose cancer has now spread to her liver – revealed she was ‘assisted by a mental health crisis team’ as her depression hit an all time low.
Sad: Linda Nolan, 62, has said she ‘was suicidal’ after the death of her husband Brian Hudson in 2007
She told The Mirror: ‘I was suicidal. A psychiatrist came to see me, with these two big burly men who were nurses. Later, I realised if it hadn’t gone well, they’d have carted me off.’
Linda and Brian were married for 26 years and met two years before tying the knot in 1979, when Brian was The Nolans’ tour manager.
Linda – who has incurable secondary cancer which has spread from her hip to her liver – sat down for an interview with the paper along with her sister Anne Nolan, who completed treatment for breast cancer in November.
Anne, 70, has now been given the all-clear.
Throwback: Linda lost Brian to skin cancer in 2007, just one year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first time (pictured in 1984)
On Wednesday, Anne credited her sister Linda for getting her through chemotherapy.
Anne and Linda underwent chemotherapy during the Covid pandemic, where restrictions prevented them from being accompanied by other members of the family for support.
In an extract from their new book Stronger Together, shared by The Mirror, Anne credits Linda for helping her through the therapy, which left her with traumatic side-effects.
Battle: Linda has incurable secondary cancer which has spread from her hip to her liver, while Anne Nolan, 70, completed treatment for breast cancer in November (pictured on Friday)
‘When [other sister] Maureen called to say Linda and I could have our chemotherapy treatment together, I cried with relief. We’ve shared every emotion – the highs and the lows – and we are stronger together because of it,’ Anne writes.
‘Two decades earlier when I had my chemo the first time, I could go out and do things. But because of the lockdowns and restrictions, I was having to shield. It’s been like living in a nightmare really. It was horrendous.
‘Having [Linda] with me helped a lot. She brought magazines in and we’d look at them together and natter. She was two metres from me, but we could still hear each other speak, and it was nice having a loved one nearby.
‘Linda was the one who labelled us the Chemo Sisters and I love that moniker.’
Anne goes on: ‘She just made life much easier. Linda had similar side-effects, and we would talk our symptoms through, as well as our coping mechanisms, and it made me feel better knowing I wasn’t alone.’
Chemo patients ring a bell in hospital on cancer wards to mark the end of their treatment. The sisters began chemotherapy at Blackpool’s Victoria Hospital last July.
Of this, Anne said: ‘When it came time to ring the bell, I was thrilled. It was fantastic feeling that I had finished chemo but I really rang the bell hard for Linda and was doing it for her rather than for me.’
Fear: Linda and Anne Nolan (L-R) have admitted that they constantly live in fear of cancer as they discussed their battle with the disease
Linda and Anne received news of their shock diagnoses within days of each other, shortly after the sisters returned from filming a series of The Nolans Go Cruising in March.
After the sisters received their heartbreaking diagnoses, Maureen moved in with Anne and Linda relocated to her sister Denise’s Blackpool home.
Anne’s diagnosis came 20 years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2000.
Back in December, the singer said her cancer has ‘disappeared’ after undergoing a course of chemotherapy.
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She said: ‘My cancer has disappeared basically. I’m still having treatment to go forward but it’s more or less gone, yeah. It’s amazing.’
The siblings tragically lost their other sister Bernie in July 2013, aged 52, after a three-year battle with cancer. She was first diagnosed with the disease in 2010.
![Family: The Nolan Sisters are pictured in 1981 [back left to right Maureen, Anne and the late Bernie, front left to right Linda and Denise]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/05/08/21/41738090-9484293-Family_The_Nolan_Sisters_are_pictured_in_1981_back_left_to_right-a-75_1620504000504.jpg)
Family: The Nolan Sisters are pictured in 1981 [back left to right Maureen, Anne and the late Bernie, front left to right Linda and Denise]
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an ‘invasive’ breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare.
Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast growing. High grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under the microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest x-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focussed on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancercare.org.uk, breastcancernow.org or www.cancerhelp.org.uk
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Source: Daily Mail
