Cancer has affected so many of our family... they will find a cure for it

As she marks five years in remission with a visit to the prestigious Toby Robins Research Centre, singer Anne Nolan insists we should all have hope

- BY HANNA GEISSLER

During the darkest period of her cancer treatment, Anne Nolan remembers talking to a family of seagulls that would perch outside her hospital room.

It was the height of the Covid pandemic and the Irish singer had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer for a second time - almost 20 years to the day she had her first encounter with the disease.

With visitors banned, she spent 11 days in hospital on antibiotics as the gruelling side effects of chemotherapy ran their course.

She recalls her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, who worked at the hospital, stopping by.

"They were gowned up from head to foot, I could hardly see them," she says. "I cried when they came in because I hadn't seen anybody for so long. I remember there was a family of seagulls living outside my window and I used to talk to them every day."

On brighter days during her treatment in 2020, Anne had more familiar company: her sister Linda was also having chemo for metastatic breast cancer. Despite strict social distancing rules, the pair were allowed to mix as they had formed a support bubble.

Together Anne would be hooked up to her intravenous drip in the morning, then wait for Linda to arrive around lunchtime with magazines and snacks - usually chocolate biscuits.

"They let Linda and myself have it together because we were sisters and we were spending time together in the same house anyway," she recalls.

"One time, I had a bad reaction to one of my chemos and she was making jokes about it - it helped a great deal to lighten the atmosphere. We were able to sit next to each other and talk."

Anne, 74, recently celebrated five years in remission and was officially declared cancer-free. She marked the occasion with a visit to a major breast cancer research centre in London.