Linda Nolan will be laid to rest today (February 1) at a church in Blackpool (Image: Alex Cousins / SWNS)
Musician and TV personality will be laid to rest today (February 1) after she died at the age of 65 following a lengthy battle with breast cancer.
The Nolans Sister star will be laid to rest at St Paul’s Church in Blackpool, with mounrers expected to gather outside from 10.30am. This is the very location where Linda married her late husband Brian Hudson in 1981. He died in 2007.
Linda, who shot to fame alongside her sisters Anne, Denise, Maureen, Bernie and Coleen as part of The Nolans in the mid-1970s, had openly battled with her health throughout her life.
Now, the star’s famous friends and doting family are gathering at the ceremony to say a final farewell to the musician in the heart of Blackpool.
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Inside Linda and Brian’s marriage
Linda and Brian had been married for 26 years befroe the tour manager sadly died. The pair met back in 1997 when he served as the tour manager for the Nolan Sisters.
It didn’t take long before the pair became inseparable and in 1981 they tied the knot, with several of Linda’s sisters serving as bridesmaids.
The couple had a memorable wedding with Linda’s father reportedly dropping his false teeth down the toilet, resulting in him delivering his speech with a “whistle”.
Brian sadly died at the age of 60 in 2007 when he passed away as a result of skin cancer and liver failure. When Linda was first diagnosed breast cancer.
Speaking to in 2016 after his death, she confessed: “I always think if he was here, he’d sort it. When I had cancer in 2006, I’d wake up in the night feeling rubish and he’d rub my back, giving me what I needed.
“I miss him every day. I had depression when I lost him and I still suffer now, but it’s under control.”
Linda Nolan and Brian Hudson tied the knot in 1981 (Image: PA)
‘Cancer curse’
Nolan isn’t the first member of her family to battle with the deadly disease. Their father, Tommy Nolan Sr, was the first to fall victim from the devastating disease when he lost his battle with cancer in 1998.
Sister Bernie, Anne, Linda and Coleen, all received cancer diagnoses throughout their life.
Anne was the first of the sisters to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000. At the time, she underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and “an operation”.
Her cancer returned two decades later. It was two separate cancers and underwent further chemotherapy, radiotherapy and another operation.
Thankfully she was given the all-clear back in 2024. Tragically, Bernie passed away in 2013 at the age of 52.
Initially diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2010, she was celebrating remission by October that year after undergoing extensive treatments.
However, her triumph was short-lived. In February 2010, she stopped taking cancer medication in February 2012 and the cancer returned later that year.
Despite fighting bravely, Bernie succumbed to the disease at her Surrey home in July 2013.
Coleen Nolan discovered in July 2023 that she had basal cell carcinoma on her should and a pre-cancerous melanoma on her face.
The youngest Nolan sister was warned if it was left untreated it could grow into the deadliest type of skin cancer, melanoma – which can spread across the body.
Since then, the Loose Women star has had it removed. Speaking last year, she said: “I got skin cancer last year [2023]. I had carcinoma on my shoulder which has now gone and had chemo cream on my shoulder so that burned that off.”
The TV presenter admitted she frequently checks for signs of cancer because so many members of her family have had it.
Sun shines down as mourners begin to gather
The sun is shining down as the first few mourners gather to pay their respects to the late Nolan sister at St Paul’s Church in Blackpool.
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Inside her cancer battle
The Irish singer was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2005, before she was diagosed with cellulitis and lymphedema in her arm two years later.
After six years of treatment, she was finally given the all-clear in 2011.
But in 2017, doctors discovered an incurable secondary breast cancer on her pelvis.
Three years later, the cancer had to her liver and later metastisised to her brain.