Linda Nolan's heartbreaking final hours were spent 'doing what she loved best'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Singer and actress Linda Nolan was laughing and ­joking right up until the end, her sister Denise has said. The pop star, who died on Wednesday (January 15) aged 65, had been taken to hospital with breathing difficulties last weekend, eight years after being told she had secondary breast cancer in her hip.

Doctors diagnosed double pneumonia and put her on oxygen, advising her to rest quietly and let it work. But Denise, 72, reveals Linda instead lived up to her "Naughty Nolan" nickname, saying that rather than do what she had been told, the star spent her final waking hours doing what she loved best – entertaining those around her.

Recounting the last few hours in the life of her "beautiful, brave, hard-working and talented sister", Denise told The Mirror: "She'd been laughing and joking, although the medical team had told her she had to stay quiet to let her treatment do its job.

Everyone was being quietly optimistic as she'd seemed so cheerful. Then at 3.30am on Tuesday, we got the dreaded call, 'Get to the hospital asap'." Linda had been told two years ago that the cancer had spread to her brain.