THREE months on from major surgery to remove a tumour from her brain, Davina McCall is back with a bang.
Despite the trauma of her diagnosis, which saw doctors warning the telly favourite there was a risk of sudden death, she is as positive as ever.
Despite the trauma of a brain tumour diagnosis, Davina McCall is as positive as ever[/caption]
Davina had major surgery to remove the tumour from her brain[/caption]
“I called my brain tumour Jeffrey,” Davina said with a smile as she spoke about her ordeal on her brand new podcast, Begin Again, out today.
“I’m really sorry to any Jeffs but I needed to name it something. And I didn’t have any personal friends that were called Jeffrey, so it seemed like a good name to call him.”
Davina — who shocked viewers on The Masked Singer last Saturday by debuting a blonde, pixie-cut wig — admitted her world stopped when she learned she had a tumour.
But the 57-year-old vowed to turn the negative into a positive with the help of her partner Michael Douglas and three children, Holly, 23, Till, 21, and 18-year-old Chester, from her marriage to Matthew Robertson.
She explained: “We had a Jeffrey happy birthday party with friends.
“Michael played the piano and sang some songs and sort of did speeches.
“We all kind of talked about things and I talked about the fact that I was a bit scared, but like, I know I’m going to do it.
“And if it was going to happen to anybody, it was good it happened to me, because I am robust mentally and I can handle it.
“The party was fun. And everybody was like, ‘This is the weirdest kind of gathering I’ve ever been to. This is so mad.’ But it felt like an appropriate thing to do.
“I don’t want the heaviness. I don’t, that’s who I am. I don’t want sympathy, limp necks, weight.
“I don’t want to carry the burden of other people’s worries about me.”
Davina announced she had been diagnosed with the benign tumour in November, telling fans to “say a prayer” for her.
Doctors discovered the 14mm colloid cyst after the TV star had a free brain scan with private healthcare company, One Welbeck, which she received in exchange for giving a talk about menopause.
The fitness expert explained: “In my head, I was literally the healthiest person in the world.
“I had this head-to-toe scan. And they came back and they went, ‘OK, we’ve got your results. Um, we’d like to talk to you.’
“They said, ‘You’ve got a benign cyst in your brain.’
“He explained that it’s called a colloid cyst. And a colloid cyst only affects three in a million people, and it can also cause — very, very rarely — sudden death.”
Davina admitted her world stopped when she learned she had a tumour[/caption]
Fitness expert Davina said she felt like the ‘healthiest person in the world’ before her diagnosis[/caption]
The former Big Brother host continued: “I have newfound enormous sympathy for people who have benign brain tumours.
“I have had so many people say to me, ‘Well, at least it was benign.’ And you think, ‘You have no idea that benign brain tumours can still kill you.’
“It’s just you don’t know when it’s going to happen. It could happen tomorrow, it could happen in years’ time.
“It’s different to cancer, but it is also awful. Benign does not mean fine. Living with that uncertainty is pretty terrifying.”
But brain surgery doesn’t come without risks. The op, called a craniotomy required surgeons to remove a part of Davina’s skull to access the brain and cyst.
Speaking to podcaster Steven Bartlett, Davina recalled: “When I’d spoken to the doctors, they talked about things like stroke, epilepsy, these being risks.
“Nicking an artery or a blood vessel in the brain and having a bleed, so there were a lot of things that could be a risk.
“And, obviously, because of my age, you know, I’m fifty-seven. That was another thing that mattered to me.
Sorting affairs
“I was thinking, you know, would I rather have brain surgery now, or if it grew in eight years’ time, would I want to have it in my mid-to-late sixties?
“Would it not be better to get it done now while I’m fit and healthy in every other way?”
Davina discussed her options with with her partner Michael, a celebrity hairdresser, and her children before deciding to go ahead with the surgery.
I feel like life’s never going to be the same again, but in rather a good way
Davina
But she revealed she also talked to Michael about what should happen if something was to go wrong during the surgery.
She recalled: “I said, ‘Look, I’ve got to plan for it if it doesn’t go according to plan.’”
She set about sorting her affairs including updating her will.
Davina said: “I wrote letters of wishes to all the children, and put those in my will.”
Speaking about the effect on her family, Davina said she was most concerned about her youngest Chester, adding: “It was only when I came home [from hospital] he was like, ‘I didn’t realise how serious it was.’
“I said, ‘Well, I’m pleased, you know, because look, here I am and it all went well and it was fine.’
“But in a way, there was part of me that was thinking, ‘If it hadn’t been fine, he would have struggled the most.’”
Her voice breaking with emotion, Davina told Steven that in the days before her operation, she would contemplate what would happen to her loved ones if she didn’t make it through.
She said: “What I wanted to do was to try to find a way that they would find a way through if I didn’t make it. Who would they have around them? Who would support them?
“Where would they live? I mean, obviously I’m a mum, the thing you really want is to have your mum around when you have babies, get married.
“Christmases with grandchildren… I mean, I can’t wait for grandkids.
“Those are the kinds of things that I would feel sad about.
“But I tried not to think about things that I would miss if I didn’t make it.”
Write the bucket list now and start doing it now
Davina
Davina told Steven she had dreaded the pity she was bound to receive from friends and fans after announcing she had a tumour. She explained: “I don’t want limp necks. I don’t want pity.
“A lot of people have said to me since, ‘When you told me, I thought you could die.’ And I thought, ‘I don’t want people looking at me like I could die.’”
Davina had the six-hour surgery in a London hospital on November 15. She recalled: “My final thought (before the op) was that my kids are surrounded by love and family and Michael.
“Like, I just thought, ‘You guys… it will be devastating, but you will all be OK.’
“Through this, it has made me immensely proud of all of them.”
The operation went to plan and Davina later thanked her neurosurgeon Kevin O’Neill, who is the co-Investigator of Research at the Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence at Imperial College, London.
Now focused on the future, Davina said she wants to live each day to its fullest. She explained: “There’s that saying, ‘A life lived in fear is a life half-lived’. If there’s something you want to do, do it.
“Write your bucket list now. When I did one with my sister, Caroline, it was really sweet. But she died (from cancer in 2012) before she could do any of it.
“Why are we doing bucket lists when we’re dying? Write the bucket list now and start doing it now.”
Davina added: “I feel like life’s never going to be the same again, but in rather a good way.”
- The full episode of Davina’s new podcast Begin Again, made by Steven Bartlett’s Flight Studio is available now
