Coleen Nolan has confessed that she initially kept her cancer diagnosis a secret from her family, only to be exposed by her son. During a recent episode of the British Skin Foundation’s health-themed podcast, Skin, Unfiltered, the Loose Women star opened up about her skin cancer diagnosis and her reasons for keeping it under wraps.
Coleen is the youngest member of the renowned Nolan sisters, who are known for their 1979 hit ‘I’m in the Mood for Dancing’. Tragically, the family has been deeply affected by cancer, with sisters Linda and Anne receiving diagnoses within days of each other. Earlier this year, Linda sadly passed away at the age of 65, twenty years after her initial breast cancer diagnosis in 2005. She was given the all-clear in 2011 but received a secondary diagnosis of breast cancer in 2017, and tragically, the cancer spread.
In 2023, Coleen revealed on an episode of the ITV chat show that she had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder and melanomaon her face. When asked if it was difficult to share her diagnosis with her family, Coleen admitted that she didn’t tell them initially.
Indeed, it was her sisters’ health struggles that influenced her decision, as the family was “going through so much.”
Coleen stated: “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 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.'”
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.