Davina McCall has shared a new photo from around the time she underwent brain surgery two years ago. The former Big Brother presenter, 59, had a craniotomy after doctors discovered a "very rare" colloid cyst in her brain during a routine health check. She later underwent a five-hour operation to remove the cyst.
Reflecting on the surgery
In a recent Instagram post, Davina apologised to her husband, celebrity hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her children for the "worry" they endured. Sharing a photograph of herself recovering in a hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around her head, alongside an image of her brain scan, she said she feels "amazing" two years on from the surgery.
"Two years ago today, Michael and I started the toughest 18 months of our lives," she wrote in the caption. "I'd like to celebrate feeling amazing today. I would also like to say sorry, for all the worry I put Michael and our kids thru, It was a lot. For everyone."
Thanking her surgeon
Davina thanked her surgeon, Mr. Kevin O'Neill, who was recommended to her by model and friend Caprice Bourret, who also had surgery to remove a brain tumour. "We owe you everything KEVIN @brain.surgeon.uk you are the best!! @capricebourret was right!!" Davina continued. "And thank you, Caprice thank you, Rupi and @welbeckhealth for finding it and to everyone at @clevelandcliniclondon who took such great care of me."
She added: "I'd like to thank my body and my brain, we've been through a lot and you've really worked hard to recover. Well done us but mostly thank you Michael I really couldn't have got through this without you. You are a superhero. My superhero."
Looking death in the face
During an appearance on Paloma Faith's Mad, Bad and Sad podcast last month, Davina recalled "looking death in the face" as she prepared to have the surgery. "I looked dying in the face when I had the brain surgery, I lay there and I thought, 'Okay, I have to go into that operating theater and go to sleep and let go of the outcome,'" she said. "I can't go in full of fear."
Davina, who shares Holly, 25, Tilly, 23, and Chester, 20, with her ex-husband Matthew Robinson, said she did not want to put pressure on the surgeon by telling him that he needed to keep her alive for the sake of her children. She added: "I thought, I have to be calm to help them be calm. I looked back at my life and I thought, have I kept my side of the street clean? For me, that meant apologising for something that you feel you need to apologise for and not expecting anything in return."
