'It hit me like a ton of bricks, ' Coleen Nolan on how therapy saved her after losing her sister Linda

In January 2025, the Nolan family lost their sister Linda when she passed away from double pneumonia aged just 65, following a battle with cancer.

Now her sibling Coleen - who recently turned 61 - has opened up about the pain of dealing with her loss in the family, admitting that after a year her feelings are still raw, but turning to therapy has "absolutely saved" her.

Coleen shared, "When Linda died, that hit me like a ton of bricks. I didn’t know what to do with myself and I didn’t want to get up. I was forcing myself to do everything because actually inside I didn’t want to do anything."

Her inability to deal with her loss eventually resulted in Coleen seeking therapy.

"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'", she explained.

Coleen continued, "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", adding, "Therapy absolutely saved me."

Despite finding some help, Coleen admits that "it never gets easy, there are easier days that I can get through. But there will also be something that will trigger it off."

She adds, "That’s not a bad thing. Linda will never be forgotten, she will always be in my heart.

"There are certain things that happen and I go, ‘Linda would have loved this.’ It happens when I’m on a red carpet because she loved those events - so going to those really make me think of her, but in a nice way.”

It’s not the first time a tragic death has befallen the Nolan clan. Bernie - widely known as the lead singer of the Nolans during their performances - passed away 13 years ago after a battle with breast cancer.

And Coleen herself revealed that she had a cancer scare after discovering basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder in 2023.

She initially dismissed it as eczema, before visiting a doctor, who later checked two small marks on her face and diagnosed them as melanoma. She has since encouraged people to seek help if they have suspicions.

"I’m telling you, make time. It’s very important. It happened to me recently, my sister kept mentioning this little rash on my shoulder. I kept saying, 'Oh it’s fine, it’s eczema.' I’ve never had eczema in my life but it was the closest thing I could think of."

When it comes to Linda and Bernie, she finds the fact that people still want to talk about them is key to keeping their legacy alive.

"People still talk to me about Linda all the time. That means a lot to me and my family. It’s incredible. When you lose someone, you know what they mean to you, but when we lost her the outpouring was so big and still is to this day.

"You go, 'Wow, she really was loved by so many people.'

"It brings you peace but also at times it brings me sadness because I don’t know if she knew enough. It was the same when Bernie died. I don’t know if they knew how much they were loved. It’s kind of bittersweet."

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.