Linda Nolan has said she will start a new cancer drug after scans showed the tumours in her brain stopped responding to regular treatment.
The 65-year-old singer, who attained fame as part of the family pop group The Nolans, revealed last year that the secondary breast cancer she was being treated for had spread to her brain, impacting her balance and leaving her in need of a wheelchair.
She has since been undergoing regular treatment which initially shrunk the tumours and then stabilised them.
The singer, who said last year she was preparing for “the inevitable”, said she “sobbed” to her consultant when she got the news the treatment was no longer effective.
“I had feared something was wrong. My balance has been getting worse and my memory – my sisters have to prompt me when I get lost in the middle of a sentence,” she told The Mirror in an update published on Wednesday.
“Maureen came with me to the appointment and my Macmillan Cancer Support nurse was in the room, and I could just tell. I asked my consultant straight away: ‘Has it spread?’
“When he told me, I immediately asked: ‘What do we do now?'”
The singer is set to start new treatment this week which will include the drug Enhertu, according to The Mirror.
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Nolan said: “To be able to try a new drug is amazing, I just wish everyone could have this opportunity.
“To be able to try this is hope – it’s a plan B not everyone is being allowed. To take this drug away from women is to take away their hope.”
Nolan was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and the disease resurfaced in 2017 and has since spread to her brain, bones and liver.
Speaking about the potential side effects of the drug, she said: “I asked my consultant ‘will I lose my hair again’? and it is a possibility.
“I told him: ‘That will be five times I’ve lost my hair!
“But if it happens, I’ll just shave it again. Thankfully, he is not saying ‘we can’t do anything for you’.
“We have more places to go. I am ready to try anything. I have done this before and I can do it again.”
The life-extending drug for incurable breast cancer is not currently available on the NHS after its manufacturers and the NHS spending watchdog failed to reach an agreement on price.
Nolan revealed she had liver cancer in 2020, having been previously treated for breast cancer in 2006 and secondary cancer on her pelvis in 2017.
Her sister Anne, who she joined on TV series The Nolans Go Cruising, was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2020 and is now cancer-free.
Another sister, Loose Women star Coleen, revealed she was diagnosed with skin cancer last year and said her sister Maureen would often point at a “tiny bit of skin” on her shoulder that was a “bit red” before she decided to see a doctor.
Their sister Bernie died of breast cancer in 2013 aged 52.