Brian Nolan confirmed he has been diagnosed with cancer just months after the tragic death of his sister Linda from the same disease. He was told he had level 2 prostate cancer only three days after laying his sister to rest at her funeral. He told The Mirror: “I just want cancer to leave us alone.
“You’re never ready for somebody to say: ‘Yes, you’ve got cancer’. It’s like being hit by a train. You start plunging into the abyss of: ‘I’m going to die’. The urologist stood up and said ‘We’re going to treat this and we’re going to cure this’. I’m focusing on that and hope to God I can have the courage my sisters had.”
His Loose Women star sister Coleen “couldn’t speak” when he told her the news, adding: “I went completely numb and about an hour later I wanted to punch walls and scream. In our family, cancer’s just there. But he was so positive and I’m just so proud of him.”
Brian Nolan has been diagnosed with cancer (Image: -)
Brian now faces a gruelling surgery to remove his prostate gland, but thankfully has been told the cancer has not spread to any other parts of his body. He first noticed odd symptoms when he realised he was using the toilet more often than usual, and went to his GP to have it investigated.
PSA tests on his blood followed by an MRI and biopsy confirmed he had the disease in January 2025 – three days after his sister Linda was laid to rest in Blackpool following her own cancer battle. He hadn’t told Linda, who died on January 15, that he was potentially facing his own battle with the disease in order to protect her.
Brian is the fifth Nolan sibling to be diagnosed with cancer, after they lost Bernie Nolan to breast cancer in 2013 aged just 52. Anne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, while Coleen has faced a battle with skin cancer in 2023.
Linda Nolan was laid to rest in Blackpool in January (Image: Getty)
Linda was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, but was given the all-clear in 2011. Sadly in 2017 she was taken to hospital after a fall, where doctors discovered an incurable form of secondary breast cancer on her pelvis, which later spread to her liver and brain.
Linda was eventually taken to hospital in January 2025 with double pneumonia, where she later fell into a coma. She was 65 when she sadly passed away.
