Davina McCall has opened up about her struggle with a benign tumour, saying “it had taken control of me and I was so angry about that” after her diagnosis last year.
The 57-year-old former Big Brother presenter disclosed in November that she discovered the colloid cyst following a health check-up related to her menopause advocacy work.
Following surgery to remove the tumour and a stint in intensive care, McCall recuperated at home with assistance from her partner, celebrity hairdresser Michael Douglas.
Speaking on her podcast Begin Again with Steven Bartlett, McCall shared that she was informed the tumour was an unusual type that could “cause sudden death” and is “very, very rarely” seen.
She expressed her frustration, stating: “I felt like this thing had taken control of me and I was so angry about that. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let it go. (I thought) ‘How dare you control my daily life like this and make me feel every day like I’m in danger? ’”
McCall also conveyed her empathy for others with benign brain tumours, highlighting the lack of understanding about their severity: “I have newfound enormous sympathy for people who have benign brain tumours. Because you think… 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.’” She added, “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. A benign does not mean fine.”
McCall concluded by acknowledging the fear that comes with living in uncertainty but affirmed her commitment to health and fitness: “Living with that uncertainty is pretty terrifying. I know enough now to know that, look, I am healthy. I look after myself. I exercise.”
Speaking candidly about her health concerns, McCall revealed: “I’ve got all of these things going for me, but stress is a killer. And I want to de-stress my life. I do not want to live with the stress of thinking any minute, you know, I could be taken out by something.”
She also confessed to holding a strong belief in destiny, stating she “seriously believes wholeheartedly that somewhere in my genetic makeup, this was in my stars from birth, in my brain at birth”. Surprisingly, she never saw her condition as “unfair”.
Opening up about how her operation has impacted her, she indicated that it has been a significant learning experience: “not changed me forever, but I’ve learned things about myself that I would never have learned without this operation”.
Davina anticipates seeing this period as a pivotal point in her life, adding that in two years’ time, it might be regarded as “one of the greatest blessings of my life”.
In a lighter tone, McCall mentioned she gave her tumour a moniker, “Jeffrey”, due to having no acquaintances by that name. She went on to describe throwing “Jeffrey” a “happy birthday party with friends”, an extension of her desire to reassure people rather than seeking sympathy or burdening others with her surgical ordeal.
When discussing the serious conversations with Douglas concerning mortality, McCall said they happened “quickly”, after being informed by doctors of potential surgical risks like “stroke, epilepsy” and the danger of “nicking an artery or a blood vessel in the brain and having a bleed”.
Taking pragmatic steps, she added: “I did go and address my will and make sure that was airtight. I talked to Michael about my wishes. I wrote letters of wishes to all the children, and put those in my will.”
Discussing her children’s resilience, she expressed her desire to “try and find a way that they would all find a way through if I didn’t make it”.
McCall shared: “It was funny with Chester because he’s the youngest. He’s 18. And it was only when I came home, 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.’” She added, “But in a way, there was part of me that was thinking: ‘If it hadn’t been fine, he would have struggled the most.'”.
Non-cancerous brain tumours, which are more prevalent in individuals over 50 according to the NHS, can present symptoms such as headaches, vision problems, and drowsiness. Some tumours may be challenging to remove without harming nearby tissue, and treatments like chemotherapy or radiotherapy might be necessary if surgery doesn’t succeed.
McCall has been a vocal advocate for women’s health issues, presenting documentaries including Sex, Myths And The Menopause and Davina McCall’s Pill Revolution.
In 2023, she was appointed an MBE for services to broadcasting in the King’s birthday honours and received the special recognition award at the National Television Awards for her contributions to broadcasting.