Champion weightlifter Davina McCall has had a secret operation to remove a rare and potentially deadly brain tumour, according to her partner.
The 57-year-old TV presenter earlier this week shared a video on Insta, saying she had been diagnosed with a colloid cyst, a kind of benign tumour.
On Friday evening, Michael Douglas gave an update stating that McCall had come out of surgery and was healing up in hospital – and expressing gratitude “for all the love”. He said that McCall was “absolutely spent”.
A benign tumour is not cancerous, however, such cysts usually increase in size gradually, as the Brainstrust organisation affirms.
Douglas, who posted the statement on McCall’s Instagram page which has 1.9 million followers, said that a doctor had told him that the procedure was ‘textbook’.
Before the surgery McCall described how the tumour was discovered incidentally.
“Several months ago I agreed to do a menopause talk for a company and in return they asked if I would do a health check, which I was going to kill,” she said in the video.
But it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst, which is very rare – three in a million.
So I just kind of hid my head in the sand for a little bit and then I saw several neurosurgeons.” I received a lot of feedback and I came to understand that I needed to have it removed.
“It’s big for the space. It fills the space. It is 14mm wide and this has to be removed as if it grows it will be undesirable. I’m having it removed through a craniotomy so I reckon the odds are stacked in my favour there.
Craniotomy is an operation in which the surgeon opens the skull and thereby expels the tumourous tissue.
”Get the cyst, empty it, take it out, Bob’s your uncle,” McCall said.
Speaking alongside her partner Douglas, she added: “I’m OK. I guess it’s been a roller coaster, of course. Yes, we have suffered a lot yes, but we’ve been through a lot as well yes.
She said she would take about nine days in hospital after the operation.
She told followers: I just do not want you to be bothered thinking about me. I’m doing that enough.
But I’m not worrying too much and I am in a good space. What I can believe is my surgeon and his team, and I am turning the whole thing over to him.
‘He knows what he’s doing,’ and I’m going to do the getting better bit after.’ I felt that when he said, “I’ll see you on the other side” he was referring to his death.
Douglas said then that he would temporarily take over her social media.
What are colloid cysts?
It usually develops in the midline of the brain in a structure called the ventricle and is also filled with the same fluid, according to the Brains Trust.
The organisation states that they are responsible for less than 2% of all primary brain tumours; its rate of growth and symptom progression may also differ from one person to the other.
Most people are diagnosed after a search for something else and some gynecologist advise watchful waiting if the cyst is small and the patient has no discomforts.
Although they increase in size they can obstruct the circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), signs and symptoms being: headaches, vision impairment, nausea, loss of consciousness. In extreme cases, if left untreated they can lead to coma and sudden death.
‘We’re grateful to Davina’
The Brain Tumour Charity told BBC News: All of us we wish Davina a positive result in this procedure it is our hope and pray.
However, it does give solace in knowing that she has decided that something she inspires so many with will ensure this uniquely terrible illness is known.
”We exist to fund groundbreaking research, advocate for change in health policies and provide help and support to all those whose world has been turned upside down by the diagnosis of a brain tumour.”
Will Jones, chief executive of Brainstrust, added: Brain tumours are invasive, they can occur with anyone and guess what, they are more prevalent than you would imagine. Currently more than 80 000 persons in Great Britain are alive after developing a brain tumour, and there are recognized over 130 various types of the disease.
He said they were also “thankful to Davina” for the way she ‘came out’ with her story.
“This will make hundreds of people with colloid cysts to feel recognised and not alone,” he said.
McCall has been a TV presenter for more than 20 years and her TV show credits include Channel 4 Big Brother, ITV Long Lost Family and My Mum, Your Dad and Comic and Sport Relief for the BBC.
In the early part of this year she clinched a special recognition award at National TV Awards for her effort in the TV fraternity all through her struggling period.
She also advocates for menopause because hormonal changes made her look at women’s lives through her creations.
Last year she won the British Book Award for 2022’s Menopausing, a book she wrote with Dr Naomi Potter.
A similar phenomenon known as the “Davina effect” led to a massive rush to hormone replacement therapy or HRT after she featured in Channel 4’s programme, ‘Sex, Myths and the Menopause’, in 2021.
