Coleen Nolan has confessed that therapy “saved” her as she shed light on the effects of a tragedy that struck her family last year, revealing that it hit her like a “ton of bricks”
Coleen Nolan has revealed that therapy “saved” her following a devastating family tragedy. Last year, her sister Linda passed away at the age of 65, two decades after initially being diagnosed with breast cancer. Although Linda was given the all-clear in 2011, she received a secondary diagnosis in 2017, with the disease having spread.
Cancer has repeatedly affected the family, with her sister Anne also receiving a diagnosis, Linda’s husband Brian Hudson dying from the disease in 2007, and Coleen herself being diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma and melanoma.
Given these tragedies, it’s entirely understandable that Coleen, the youngest member of The Nolans – a girl group famous for their hit song I’m in the Mood for Dancing – felt she needed professional support.
It seems that it reached a tipping point once Linda passed away. Coleen explained that her death hit her like a “ton of bricks” and left her unsure of what to do with herself, admitting that she felt like she didn’t want to “get up” or “do anything”.
She told Woman magazine: “I didn’t want to speak to people, I didn’t want to laugh, I didn’t want to work, and the only thing that helped me was instantly acknowledging it and saying, ‘I need help’.”
Coleen added: “All my family were there; my kids were there (and they were saying), ‘You can talk to us’, and I thought, ‘No, I need professional help now. This needs professional help because I don’t know how to pull myself together’, so I instantly got therapy”.
In a closing remark, the Loose Women star added: “Therapy absolutely saved me.”
She has previously been open about her health, revealing to the British Skin Foundation’s health podcast, Skin, Unfiltered, in September 2025 that she initially concealed her cancer diagnosis from her family members.
Coleen, who had basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and melanoma on her face, was asked whether it had been challenging to share the devastating news with her family, but she explained they were “going through so much”.
She said: “Well, do you know what, I didn’t tell them, actually, initially, because I didn’t want to worry them. We were going through so much with my sister, Linda, at the time, and my elder sister as well.”
Coleen continued: “And then we were sitting there with the family one day, and out of the blue (I think it was my son, my oldest son), all of a sudden went, ‘Well, it’s like Mum now with her skin cancer.’
“And my whole family just went, ‘What?’ And I was just like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. It’s really fine, you know.’ And they were like, ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ And I was just very much like, ‘There wasn’t really anything to tell.’”
She revealed that had she needed chemotherapy, she would have told them. As it was carcinoma, she hadn’t felt the need to say. While her sister was receiving chemo, she admitted she “felt a bit silly doing it.”
