Linda Nolan’s family and friends to honour her ‘remarkable life’ at funeral
By Charlotte McLaughlin, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Linda Nolan’s family and friends will pay their respects at a funeral service celebrating her “remarkable life”.
Members of the public are also welcome to gather at the church for the service at 10.30am on Saturday at St Paul’s Church in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Nolan married her husband of more than two decades, Brian Hudson, in the church, and said goodbye to him there after he died in 2007, according to her family.
Dublin-born singer Nolan died on January 15 at the age of 65 in the seaside town’s hospital, surrounded by her family.
Her sister Anne posted on Instagram, saying “we lay our wonderful sister Linda to rest” this weekend.
“There’s been a bit of confusion regarding the church service and the crematorium. Just to clarify everyone is welcome to both services,” she added.
“There may not be seating available as both places are small and obviously we are a big family so most of the seating will be taken by us but if you don’t mind standing we would love you to be there and we know Linda would be thrilled.”
“Everyone who knew Linda, or whose lives she touched, are welcome to come and pay their respects as we remember her remarkable life,” The Nolans’ official page on Instagram said.
The message also described Nolan as a “beloved sister, friend and entertainer” and a “symbol of hope, humour and resilience”.
The family are raising money for Trinity Hospice, which Nolan supported, and have asked that donations and messages of condolence should be sent to a memorial page in her memory.
More than £2,450 has been raised on the Much Loved site so far.
Nolan, who rose to fame in family group The Nolans with her sisters Coleen, Maureen, Bernie, Denise and Anne, had long been a campaigner and fundraiser for cancer awareness, having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.
The singer was admitted to Blackpool Victoria Hospital with double pneumonia earlier this month, and went into a coma, according to her manager Dermot McNamara.
He said she died “with her loving siblings by her bedside”.
Nolan had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and was 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.
Nolan said she had started taking the life-extending drug Enhertu, in August 2024, which she described as “amazing”, and pushed for other people to have this “opportunity” to take it.
She was also known for Celebrity Big Brother, a Daily Mirror column, and musical theatre appearances in shows such as Blood Brothers, Pump Boys And Dinettes and Prisoner Cell Block H.
Outside her TV and musical career, Nolan helped to raise more than £20 million for numerous charities, including Breast Cancer Now, Irish Cancer Society and Samaritans.
