Bernie Nolan faces breast cancer battle

Bernie Nolan faces breast cancer battle
Bernie Nolan faces breast cancer battle

Singer and actress Bernie Nolan has been diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the News Of The World. The 49-year-old - who was runner-up in ITV1's Popstar To Operastar earlier this year - is the third of the singing sisters to be diagnosed with the disease. Older siblings Linda and Anne have both successfully battled breast cancer within the past ten years. Bernie, who received the diagnosis last week, has been told that the cancer has already spread to her lymph nodes and she faces a mastectomy and chemotherapy. "I'm fighting this," she told the paper. "I'm strong and I'm not going to let this defeat me, I'm not going to sit back and let that happen." The mum-of-one added that the hardest part had been telling her 10-year-old daughter Erin about her diagnosis, but added, "The best thing about having a child is I have the extra strength because I want to see her grow up and I have to be strong for her." Bernie's daughter now faces genetic tests to see if she is at risk of developing the disease. The News Of The World reports that the other Nolan sisters Maureen, Denise and Loose Women presenter Colleen, who are so far clear of the disease - will also be tested. As well as her singing career with her sisters, Bernie has appeared in a number of TV shows including Brookside and The Bill, in which she played Sgt Sheelagh Murphy. She finished in second place to Darius Campbell on Popstar To Operastar, in which pop stars were trained to perform operatic arias.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.