Coleen Nolan's brother has issued a plea after being left 'speechless' from finding out he had cancer just days after Linda Nolan's funeral.
Brian appeared on Loose Women on Monday (March 24) to share his early symptoms and how the disease has affected his life. The 69-year-old, from Blackpool, is the fifth of eight Nolan siblings to face cancer and hid his level 2 prostate cancer diagnosis from the rest of his family until Linda's funeral had passed.
The TV personality and singer died in January after following a brave battle with secondary breast cancer. Appearing alongside his sister Coleen on the panel, Brian spoke to Christine Lampard, Brenda Edwards and Gloria Hunniford and shared that he visited the doctor after he had a "urinary problem".
However when the results showed he had prostate cancer, hesaid: "I was speechless, my wife was with me and broke down a little bit."
Discussing his diagnosis, he said: "It’s kind of a common thing in men our age. I had a urinary problem, which means I was weeing too much.
"It was becoming to affect my life, needing to not drive too far without going to the toilet, so I went to my GP and said ‘what’s the story here?'"
After the appointment, Brian was given a PSA inspection [Prostate-Specific Antigen test] which is a series of blood tests that measure the level of your PSA, a protein produced by the prostate gland, to help detect prostate problems, including cancer.
He explained: "It was a blood test and then a little internal inspection just to make sure, where [in my case] they did find something they weren’t quite happy with, and so they decided to send me for an MRI scan and again, they did find something that they wanted to investigate. So I went and had a biopsy and they did indeed find something."
When Brian was told he had cancer, he told the Loose Women panel that he was "completely speechless" and his wife "broke down a little bit" as she was with him when he was told the devastating news.
He urged men in the studio audience and viewers at home to get checked early, saying "a lot of guys are afraid" and he went to his appointment with an unrelated issue and because he was diagnosed early, was then told the "tumour is contained within your prostate gland and we can do an operation."
Coleen told the viewers how her brother went through his diagnosis without telling the family the news. She said: “He was also at the same time organising everything for my sister Linda.
"And when I say organising everything, he and Annie [Brian’s wife] took control of the whole thing and we would never, for one moment think there was something up with Brian, so he’s been incredibly strong as well."
Brian explained his reason for keeping his health battle a secret: “It was a conscious decision by myself. We had all been through too much with Linda, and Bernadette just before, and we’d been through so much with cancer that I just thought let’s deal with Linda’s issues and what she wanted.
"I left it three or four days to let the dust settle for that, and then I told them all individually. There was devastation but I was able to give them a great story of hope."
The 69-year-old urged men to "please please please have your PSA once a year", PSA refers to a blood test that measures the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate gland, to help screen for and monitor prostate cancer.
Brian is determined to remain upbeat and positive despite his diagnosis, he shared anecdotes of attending examinations, treatments and scans with Linda. Linda was first diagnosed in 2005, given the all-clear in 2011, but in 2017 was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. In 2020 it spread and by 2023 was in her brain.
He said: "One thing is to have an absolute positive mental attitude, it’s as simple as that. Laugh it off, fight it and as I say, the treatments now are unbelievably simple to achieve."
Anne Nolan, who Linda joined on the TV series The Nolans Go Cruising, was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2020 and previously said she is now cancer-free. Loose Women star Coleen was diagnosed with skin cancer last year and said she was using a chemotherapy cream to remove it. Their sister Bernie died of breast cancer in 2013 aged 52.
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