Coleen and Maureen Nolan will await the results of an all-important DNA test on Tuesday evening after making contact with a potential long lost sister in the final episode of At Home With The Nolans.
The girls’ originally launched an appeal to find their half-sister in November after revealing their late dad Tommy had fathered an illegitimate child during an affair in the early 1950s.
And the concluding episode of their Quest Red and discovery+ series takes them one step closer to discovering her identity after Maureen, 66, submits her DNA to an online database.
Exciting: Coleen and Maureen Nolan will await the results of an all-important DNA test on Tuesday evening after making contact with a potential long lost sister in the final episode of At Home With The Nolans
‘Our missing sister has always been on my mind,’ she explains. ‘When I was younger I thought I had years to find her, but now I’m in my sixties and Anne is approaching 70, if we don’t find her now we might never find her.’
The search is all the more crucial to the family following the devastating news that younger sister Linda’s liver cancer, originally diagnosed in June, has spread.
She adds: ‘All those years of wondering and thinking, and I thought that was so quick and easy. What will the future bring, who knows?
Here we go: The concluding episode of their Quest Red and discovery+ series takes them one step closer to discovering her identity after Maureen submits her DNA to an online database
‘I know it’s science, but to me it does feel like a miracle, you know? Hopefully it will help find her, wherever she may be.’
While Maureen makes an attempt to find her missing sister, Coleen, 55, has her own breakthrough after being contacted by a man who claims his mother could be the person they’re looking for.
‘I have news!’ The Loose Women presenter announces after Maureen pays a visit to her Cheshire home.
‘So I’m sitting watching telly with the fam the other night, and I get a message on social media from a lovely chap who thinks his mother might be our long lost sister!’
Big news: While Maureen makes an attempt to find her missing sister, Coleen has her own breakthrough after being contacted by a man who claims his mother could be the person they’re looking for
First base: The girls’ soon make contact with the woman, who reveals she was just 10-years old when she discovered the man who helped raise her was not her biological father
Proof that the mystery woman could well be their sister is also produced in the form of an ageing birth certificate.
Reading the surprise social media message in full, Coleen adds: ‘Her birth certificate has been defaced, but her father’s name on the birth certificate is Thomas Nolan. Mum has searched in vain for years for her biological father and mum’s even ordered a DNA test.’
Visibly stunned, Maureen declares: ‘It literally takes my breath away. This is huge news, it’s the kind of thing that only happens in a movie, but it’s happening to us!’
The girls’ soon make contact with the woman, who reveals she was just 10-years old when she discovered the man who helped raise her was not her biological father.
Speaking to Coleen and Maureen over the phone, she tells them: ‘I think I was probably maybe nine, 10. I remember it being a thing but it became more significant at the time when you need your birth certificate.’
Contact: After swapping stories, the potential sister agrees to stay in touch, regardless of what result their imminent DNA test might yield
After swapping stories, the potential sister insists she has not inherited their talent for singing and won’t be joining them onstage – but all three agree to stay in touch, regardless of what result their imminent DNA test might yield.
Elsewhere brother Tommy admits he may well have met their sister many years ago during a Nolan Sisters’ show in central London – but dismissed her as a persistent fan.
On hand to discuss a surprise 70th birthday for sister Anne, he tells Maureen: ‘You were working in the Dominion on Tottenham Court Road and we were doing all the merchandise out the front, and this girl came up to me and she said “can I have a word?”
Important: The search is all the more crucial to the family following the devastating news that younger sister Linda’s liver cancer, originally diagnosed in June, has spread
‘I said, “yeah, what’s the problem?” She said, “your sister is over there?” I gave her a right load of hell, I said “I don’t know what you’re talking about, you better get shot.”‘
He adds: ‘I didn’t tell anybody. She knew who we were and I thought that she was just somebody who wants to get to meet you and all that. I told her to sling her hook.
‘Now, looking back, maybe I shouldn’t have done, but at the time you do what you do.’
At Home With The Nolans concludes on Tuesday December 22nd at 10pm on Quest Red and discovery+.