Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has opened up about the emotional toll of her sisters’ cancer battles — admitting she often felt her sister Anne didn’t get the recognition she deserved.
Speaking on Loose Women, Coleen reflected on the devastating years that saw her family repeatedly struck by cancer. The Nolan sisters — Linda, Bernie, and Anne — have all faced the disease, with Linda and Bernie tragically losing their battles.
Anne, however, has survived cancer twice and recently shared that she is now cancer-free. Appearing on the show, Anne recalled being diagnosed for the first time at 49. “When they said it was cancer, I was kind of out there somewhere. I didn’t really take it in,” she said. “I was abrupt to my daughters — one of them was only 13 — I told her straight, ‘It’s cancer,’ and she laughed, thinking I was joking.”
Anne’s second diagnosis came just two weeks after Linda was re-diagnosed. “We got both phone calls,” Coleen revealed, shaking her head at the painful memory.
Though Anne’s cancer did not spread and she has since been given the all-clear, Coleen admitted she has long felt her sister’s fight was overshadowed. “Anne has had cancer twice as well,” she said. “But because Bernie and Linda’s were aggressive, I sometimes felt Anne was told, ‘Yeah, yeah, you’re fine.’ It was all on Bernie and Linda. I just wanted people to remember that Anne had it twice.”
Anne nodded in understanding, acknowledging that her experience was different. “My cancer hadn’t gone anywhere else. It was just in my breasts. Theirs was travelling,” she explained.
Coleen’s emotional words served as both a tribute and a reminder — that every battle, no matter how quiet, deserves to be seen.
