We sat by Linda's bed for 36 hours holding her hand she wouldn't give up

LINDA Nolan was laughing and joking right up until the end, her sister Denise reveals today.

- JESSICA BOULTON

The Mirror columnist and pop icon, who died on Wednesday aged 65, had been rushed 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, hardworking and talented sister", Denise says: "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. Yet just two days before being taken to hospital last Saturday, she had said in her weekly Mirror column how she was feeling better after a Christmas "bout of flu".

With her trademark positivity, Linda wrote: "I feel so grateful to be feeling well again. It feels like a whole new world out there.

"There's nothing like the sensation of starting to feel better after an illness. I wake up every morning and I think, "This is another day to celebrate"." But within 48 hours she began having trouble with her breathing. Denise who had been caring for Linda at her home in Blackpool - summoned help.

She says now: "I can still see her struggling to breathe, and the lovely nurse who got the doctor out. He took one look and rang an ambulance.

"I went with her and spent hours at the hospital as she was poked and prodded. It was something she'd got used to over the years.