Linda Nolan’s stepson dies from incurable cancer months after 'cruel' disease took Loose Women star

7 May 2025, 11:17

Linda Nolan and her stepson Lloyd “fought side by side” against cancer, a disease which has badly hit the Nolan family over the years.

Linda Nolan’s stepson Lloyd Hudson has passed away from cancer, less than four months after the singer and TV personality died after her own long fight with the disease.

Lloyd, Linda’s stepson through her marriage to Brian Hudson, was diagnosed with throat cancer in September 2023, which was revealed to have progressed into an incurable cancer in 2024.

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The pair – already close through their family bond – found their simultaneous incurable cancer fights strengthened their connection in later life, friends and family have shared with the press since Lloyd’s passing on Tuesday (May 6).

“They were fighting side by side, Linda would finish her treatment and text him to check in,” a close family friend shared, The Sun reports.

“They joked about their meds, shared their side effects, cried together too. Linda really thought he’d outlive her. She needed that belief,” they added.

Linda’s hope for her stepson was greatened in April 2024 when the young man’s throat cancer seemed to show signs of having cleared.

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“Linda was absolutely over the moon,” a friend said. “She kept saying, ‘I’ll be the one to go, but he’s going to be fine.’ She clung to that.”

But sadly it wasn’t to be.

“Linda always said cancer had taken enough from her family. Now it’s taken even more. She would be heartbroken,” this family source continued.

A friend of Lloyd’s added: “He never wanted pity, he just wanted to beat it. But this disease is cruel.”

Linda and Lloyd’s unity against cancer was made all the stronger by the pair’s tragic family history with the disease.

Lloyd is the fourth member of his family to die young as a result of cancer.

Linda died in January 2025 as a result of double pneumonia which she contracted after a 20-year-long battle with cancer.

The 65-year-old was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and despite being given the all-clear in 2011, learned the disease had returned and become incurable in 2017.

A passionate cancer awareness campaigner, Linda’s conviction to speak out about battling the disease was strengthened by how unlucky her family was to be hit by several cancer diagnoses and losses over the years.

Fellow Nolan sister Bernadette ‘Bernie’ Nolan passed away due to breast cancer in 2013 aged 52 after receiving a diagnosis in 2010, Anne Nolan has survived two cancer diagnoses, and Coleen Nolan was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2023.

Speaking about her diagnosis on Loose Women, the TV star added she was “sick of cancer” affecting her family.

Linda’s husband Brian died in 2007 as a result of cancer, and so Lloyd’s diagnosis in 2023 hit the family especially hard.

Nolan family brother Brian Nolan revealed to The Mirror in March 2025 that he received a level two prostate cancer diagnosis just days after Linda died in January 2025.

“I just want cancer to leave us alone,” he shared. “You’re never ready for somebody to say: ‘Yes, you’ve got cancer’. It’s like being hit by a train. You start plunging into the abyss of: ‘I’m going to die’.

But Brian added hopefully: “The urologist stood up and said: ‘We’re going to treat this and we’re going to cure this.' I’m focusing on that and hope to God I can have the courage my sisters had.”