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NYPost.com

 - May 22, 2009

Natalie Cole Loses Sister Hours After Kidney Transplant

On same day singer gets life-saving kidney transplant, family member dies after surprise cancer diagnosis

Natalie Cole has just had the most heart-wrenching week of her life.

As Nat King Cole's Grammy Award-winning daughter, who's suffering from kidney disease, sat comforting her dying sister, Carol "Cookie" Cole, she got a frantic call from doctors saying that a kidney from a 22-year-old patient had become available and that she could receive a life-saving transplant immediately.

As Cole — who was battling hepatitis C from a past drug addiction and needed kidney dialysis three times a week — was undergoing transplant surgery a few hours later, her older sister passed away.

"This is all so surreal, and it is devastating," Natalie's younger sister, Timolin Cole, told Page Six yesterday.

"Our sister Cookie hadn't been to a doctor in 30 years, and last week she went in and they found a cancerous spot on her lung. They had wanted to start chemo right away, but Cookie said no."

Natalie's rep called the family's life-and-death drama "a tragic coincidence."

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