Pop legend Linda Nolan has become as well known for speaking openly and honestly about her breast cancer battle as for her 50-year career in showbiz.
Whether it’s dealing with losing her hair, or the many other debilitating side effects of chemotherapy, the Dublin-born singer insists she’s “living with cancer, not dying from it”. I just think that we’re all more aware of it now because we’re not frightened to talk about it. I work a lot as a celebrity ambassador for Breast Cancer Now and their hope is that by 2050 nobody will die of breast cancer. That’s their aim. They spend millions on research and as [my late sister] Bernie used to say, “Knowledge is power.”There are new treatments coming out all the time. My consultant said to me that we’re in this for a marathon, not a sprint, which I thought was great.
Does your family have the BRCA gene mutation [which makes cells more likely to divide and change rapidly, which can lead to cancer]?