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Coleen Nolan said Christmas will be ‘extremely hard’ (Image: ITV)

Coleen Nolan has opened up about her sadness surrounding the festive period, following the death of her sister Linda Nolan. Today marks Coleen’s first Christmas without Linda, who died in January after developing pneumonia while battling cancer.

Speaking earlier this month, the Loose Women star said Christmas will be “extremely hard” without her sister, especially as Linda “was the life and soul of family occasions”.

Asked if she spends the special day with her siblings, Coleen, 60, told Woman Magazine: “Growing up as a family, wherever we were, we’d always come back together for Christmas Day at my mum and dad’s.

“Sadly they’re no longer here and then you go on to have your own kids and now our kids have got kids so it’s kind of impossible.”

Sharing more about her plans, she continued: “We try to see each other in the lead-up or at Twixmas – that lull between Christmas and New Year.

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Coleen Nolan with her late sister Linda Nolan, who died in January(Image: Ian West/PA Wire)

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Coleen Nolan has two new grandsons to spoil this Christmas (Image: Coleen Nolan/Instagram)

“This will be our first Christmas without Linda and it will be extremely hard because she was the life and soul of family occasions. I really think I’m going to feel it.”

Linda was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, followed by secondary cancer between her pelvis and hip bone in 2017.

Three years later, she was told it had spread to her liver before doctors found two tumours surrounded by smaller ones in her brain.

Announcing her death in an emotional statement, her sister Maureen Nolan confirmed that cancer was not the cause.

As part of the post, she wrote: “I would just like to say, to all the people out there who felt inspired by Linda, the big C didn’t actually get her. She contracted double pneumonia over Christmas and New Year and because of her immune system it was one battle too much.

“So please keep hopeful and strong if you are suffering, she lasted nearly 20 yrs with one cancer or another, and so can you.”(sic)

The Nolans are sadly no strangers to facing cancer news, with four of the sisters having been diagnosed over the years. In 2013, their sister Bernie Nolan died from breast cancer aged 52.

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Coleen Nolan with her loved ones (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)

Ten years later, Coleen revealed her own diagnosis on Loose Women.

She said: “I got skin cancer last year. I had carcinoma on my shoulder which has now gone and had chemo cream on my shoulder so that burned that off.

“And then I’ve got this tiny bit of dry skin. I’ve been saying for ages, it doesn’t matter how much oil or cream I put on it, it won’t go.”

She added: “But doctors said, ‘That is pre melanoma, it will turn into skin cancer which is worse that carcinoma’. So I’m getting that treated when the tour ends.”

Coleen said she “laughed” when she received the news, given her family’s history with the disease.

“I thought, ‘Oh well of course I have, cancer loves my family’,” she added.

Meanwhile, while the Loose Women star will be missing her late sisters this Christmas, she has found joy in welcoming two new grandsons into her life.

Coleen’s son Shane Nolan and his partner Kimberley welcomed their first child together in November, just weeks after her daughter Ciara gave birth to her first born.