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Coleen Nolan has shared that she initially kept her cancer diagnosis a secret from her family but was ultimately revealed by her son. Speaking on the British Skin Foundation’s health-themed podcast, Skin, Unfiltered, the Loose Women star discussed her skin cancer diagnosis and explained why she chose to keep it confidential at first.
The youngest of the famous Nolan sisters, known for their 1979 hit ‘I’m in the Mood for Dancing’, Coleen comes from a family deeply affected by cancer. Sisters Linda and Anne received cancer diagnoses within days of each other. Earlier this year, Linda sadly passed away at the age of 65, following a lengthy battle with cancer that began with a breast cancer diagnosis in 2005, remission in 2011, and a subsequent secondary breast cancer diagnosis in 2017 that eventually spread.
In 2023, on an episode of the ITV chat show, Coleen disclosed that she had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and melanoma on her face. When asked about the challenges of sharing this news with her family, Coleen confessed that she initially withheld the information.
Indeed, it was her sisters’ health struggles that influenced her decision, as the family was “going through so much.”
Coleen explained: “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.”
She went on to say: “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.'”
Coleen added that if she’d had to have chemotherapy, she would have told them, but as it was a carcinoma, she didn’t think to tell them. Meanwhile, as her sister underwent chemo, she admitted she “felt a bit silly doing it.”
Nevertheless, in a touching revelation, she acknowledged that her family were “brilliant” and told her that she should have informed them, emphasising that they were “all in it together.”
It wouldn’t be the first occasion on which the family has been affected by skin cancer. Linda lost her husband, Brian Hudson, to the condition in 2007 when he was 60.
Discussing her own diagnosis with the Loose Women panel, Coleen revealedthat she initially spotted a small patch of red skin but presumed it was eczema.
She said: “I found this tiny red patch on my shoulder and it was quite red. I was putting oil on it and moisturiser on it but it just wouldn’t go.”
During a consultation with a dermatologist, she received a diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma but was reassured it was “nothing to worry about,” according to Hello! magazine.
She would, however, require topical chemotherapy cream, or alternatively, undergo skin removal. Six weeks later, she asked him to check two marks on her face, and was subsequently diagnosed with melanoma.
You can learn more about skin cancer via the NHS website here.
